Research Outline

Political Action Committees (PACs) - Media Spend

Goals

To identify 100 additional Democrat and Republican political action committees (PACs) that spend the most amount of money on digital and non-digital marketing.

Early Findings

OpenSecrets maintains a large database of all donations and expenditures that emanate from political action committees (PACs) in the US. We then went ahead to query the database to return PACS that have spent the most amount of money so far in the 2020 election cycle. Reviewing the returned list, we identified both Democrat and Republican affiliated PACs that have spent the most amount of money on media. Below is some more information on our findings:

  • Progressive Turnout Project, a Democrat-affiliated PAC, has spent $4 million so far on media and marketing activities in the 2020 election cycle. $3,952,405 of the above figure was spent directly on web ads.
  • Moveon.org, a Democrat-affiliated PAC, has spent $817,000 so far on media and marketing activities in the 2020 election cycle. $475,835 of the above figure was spent directly on web ads.
  • Stop Republicans PAC, a Democrat-affiliated PAC, has spent $1.1 million so far on media and marketing activities in the 2020 election cycle. $1,074,883 of the above figure was spent directly on web ads.
  • Senate Leadership Fund, a Republican-affiliated PAC, has spent $823,000 so far on media and marketing activities in the 2020 election cycle. $655,453 of the above figure was spent directly on web ads.
  • RGA Right Direction, a Republican-affiliated PAC, has spent $8.7 million so far on media and marketing activities in the 2020 election cycle. $484,766 of the above figure was spent directly on web ads.
  • Club for Growth Action, a Republican-affiliated PAC, has spent $3.6 million so far on media and marketing activities in the 2020 election cycle. $257,427 of the above figure was spent directly on web ads.
  • Unite the Country, a Democrat-affiliated PAC, has spent $7.2 million so far on media and marketing activities in the 2020 election cycle. $968,927 of the above figure was spent directly on web ads.
  • Carolina Blue, a Democrat-affiliated PAC, has spent $4.5 million so far on media and marketing activities in the 2020 election cycle. $462,892 of the above figure was spent directly on web ads.
  • Congressional Leadership Fund, a Republican-affiliated PAC, has spent $3.7 million so far on media and marketing activities in the 2020 election cycle. $52,160 of the above figure was spent directly on web ads.
  • Pacronym, a Democrat-affiliated PAC, has spent $857,600 so far on media and marketing activities in the 2020 election cycle. $110,968 of the above figure was spent directly on web ads.
  • Kitchen Table Conversations, a Democrat-affiliated PAC, has spent $1.3 million so far on media and marketing activities in the 2020 election cycle. $152,825 of the above figure was spent directly on web ads.