With six days to go before the Nov. 3 election, candidates are making their final pitch to voters — carpeting social media, television and radio with advertisements, trying to woo voters still deciding who they will support.
Statewide candidates are not neglecting traditional politicking — traveling around the state, talking with voters and waving down traffic with campaign signs — but they are also upping their media buys in the run-up to the election.
Earlier this week, political parties and candidates across the country made sure to submit new political ads to Facebook before the end of Monday — after the social network decided not to allow new political ads in the week before Election Day. The social media giant announced the decision in September as a way to limit misinformation, prompting campaigns and political groups to submit new ads for approval as soon as possible.
Facebook also says it will stop running political ads in the U.S. after the polls close Nov. 3 in an attempt to “protect the integrity” of the election result.
Ahead of the election, the Vermont Democratic Party made a $5,000 Facebook ad buy that will mention Molly Gray, the Democratic candidate for lieutenant governor, and that will target Republican Gov. Phil Scott. The party has targeted Scott repeatedly on Facebook, claiming in one ad that the governor “followed Big Money and vetoed the Global Warming Solutions Act.”
Since July, Scott Milne, the Republican candidate for lieutenant governor, has spent more than $29,000 on Facebook ads. Current ads include one in which Milne and Scott remind people how to vote safely between now and Nov. 3.
The Milne camp just stopped running a video that ran nearly five minutes, highlighting how his mother Marion Milne, a three-term Republican state representative, inspired him to seek elected office. Marion Milne was among the Republicans ousted from office in 2000 for supporting Vermont’s groundbreaking civil union bill.
Milne’s opponent, Gray, has spent much less than he has on Facebook — dropping $17,380 on social media ads this election cycle. However, Gray has made television a key part of her late push, spending $32,000 on TV ads in the week before the election.
Milne has spent even more on TV, putting more than $46,000 into eleventh-hour ads.
The vast majority of Gray’s Facebook ads have highlighted endorsements and support from Vermonters. Recently, her campaign added videos in which Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., and his wife, Marcelle, tout Gray and her record.
Scott has spent close to $30,000 on Facebook ads since July. In a handful of ads in the days before the election, his ads stress how he has handled the Covid-19 crisis.
Lt. Gov. David Zuckerman, the Democratic nominee for governor, has spent less on Facebook ads than the other major party statewide candidates — about $2,000 since the summer.
A week from the election, a Zuckerman ad attacked Scott for vetoing the Global Warming Solutions Act and paid family leave, and a 30-second spot called for people to vote for Democrats up and down the ballot. Zuckerman is also spending $6,000 on late television and radio ads, contrasting himself with the Republican governor.
Incumbent Rep. Peter Welch, D-Vt., who faces six challengers for his seat in Congress, has spent about $15,000 on Facebook campaign ads.
Although Vermont is considered a lock for former Vice President Joe Biden, the Democratic candidate for president, his campaign has spent more than $132,000 since July on Facebook ads in Vermont.
President Donald Trump has also spent a considerable amount of cash — $76,000 — on Facebook ads targeting the state.
According to the New York University Ad Observatory, the Progressive Turnout Project, a political action committee urging Democrats to vote, and its accompanying campaign — Stop Republicans — are the third- and fifth-highest-spending groups on Facebook political ads in Vermont.
The PAC has spent $35,000 on ads targeting Vermont, and Stop Republicans more than $52,000.
Jaime Harrison, the Democrat challenging Republican U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham in South Carolina, has sunk $18,500 into Facebook ads targeting Vermonters, according to NYU’s Facebook ad dossier. Harrison has received contributions from across the country in his effort to unseat Graham, and his ads in the Green Mountain State seem to be working, as he has received more than $45,000 from Vermonters this election cycle, according to federal campaign finance filings.
