Nearly $15M has been spent on targeted digital ads running in the 35 GOP held districts the DCCC is targeting

While ~$4.3M has been spent in the 26 districts the NRCC is targeting in next year's elections. American Action Network is doing most of the spending in these districts

Here's what daily spending on Facebook + Instagram political ads mentioning Epstein looks like for the full data - goes back 7 years

Seen uptick this year

If you divide daily spending estimates by platform wide spending, you'll discover a 10 fold increase from previous years

NRCC started running this paid digital ad this week on Google in English & in Spanish tying all Democrats to NYC Mayor-Elect Zohran Mamdani.

The ad is being targeted at specific Congressional Districts across the country.

Congressman Nick Begich started running this digital ad in Alaska yesterday. It features the New York Post's front page from the day after Mamdani was projected to the be the winner.

Texas state representative Briscoe Cain - who is running for Congress in the newly drawn TX-9 Congressional District - started running this digital ad attacking Hakeem Jeffries for endorsing Mamdani.

This ad is only running in Texas.

Former Congressman Madison Cawthorn, who is running for Congress in Florida, started running multiple ads on Facebook + Instagram related to Mamdani. Here's one of them.

All of Cawthorn's ads are only running in Florida.

TX Senator John Cornyn - who's in a tough primary battle - started running this ad going after Mamdani for saying he wanted to defund the police.

The ad is only running in Texas and is only targeted at woman.

In Virginia, daily spending in 2025 was much less than daily spending from 2021 - when Terry McAuliffe's campaign dropped a ton of money on these ads

Spending topped out around ~$293K the day before the election, which is higher than the high water mark from most other elections

In New Jersey, daily spending in 2025 soared past daily spending from right before the election in 2021.

In fact, the daily sending in the state on was higher than any other day except right before the 2020 general election

Just to illustrate how spending on political digital ads on these platforms has shifted, here's spending on Meta + Google ads in NJ/VA from the corresponding period from the 2021 election (when Meta was higher)

Oct 22 - Oct 28, 2021
NJ
Meta $873K
Google $297K

VA
Meta $2M
Google $1.6M

Seems important to point out the substantial differences in statewide spending between the platforms. Granted, they measure political ads differently, but it seems notable.

Oct 24 - Oct 30, 2025
NJ
Meta $1.2M
Google $2.8M

VA
Meta $1.2M
Google $2.4M

Here's the comparable data from Google's political ad archive. The National GOP is on the top spending list for both states on Google as well - but doesn't top the list.

Top spenders on ActBlue linking Meta ads in '25

DNC/DCCC - $7M
Jon Ossoff - $4.5M
Gavin Newsom - $3.5M
AOC - $3.1M
Progressive Turnout Project - $2.3M
Gay Valimont - $1.9M
Women's March - $1.8M
Chris Murphy - $1.6M
MoveOn - $1.5M
Jasmine Crockett - $1.2M
James Talarico - $1.2M
Bernie Sanders -$1.1M

Top spenders on WinRed linking Meta ads in 2025

Winsome Earle-Sears - $288K
America First Legal - $84K
Vivek Ramaswamy - $61K
Jason Miyares - $53K
Rand Paul - $29K
Tom Kean - $20K
Hardworking Americans - $16K
Nate Morris - $13K
Brian Kemp - $12K

Political advertisers spent $50.6M on Facebook + Instagram ads linking out to ActBlue this year (only 745K WinRed ads)

September was second highest month for ActBlue

Jan - $1.9M
Feb - $5.8M
Mar - $10.2M
Apr - $3.9M
May - $3.3M
Jun - $4.8M
Jul - $3.9M
Aug - $7M
Sep - $9.7M

Outside of the significant surges we've seen during presidential election years, the surge in spending we saw last month on Meta political ads linking out to ActBlue's platform was higher than any other moment in the data (which stretches back 7 years)

Totally different story in NJ

If we limit analysis to just candidates, Ciattarelli far outspent Sherill on Google (though Sherill was boosted by Greater Garden State - which is run by the Democratic Gov Assoc)

Neither candidate was in top Meta advertisers in NJ this past month