The 2024 presidential election will kick into yet another gear in the coming days, with the first ballots set to go out in North Carolina on Friday, a debate Sept. 10 and early voting starting in a handful of states shortly thereafter.
Analysis by Aaron Blake
There are generally thought to be seven states that are the most in play: Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. But not all swing states are of equal importance. Two — Georgia and Pennsylvania — loom particularly large. It has a lot to do with math.
Donald Trump’s campaign ad strategy, in particular, appears increasingly focused on these two states. The political data firm AdImpact reported recently that his campaign spent more money in Georgia and Pennsylvania than it did in any other states through late August. According to numbers that AdImpact shared with The Washington Post on Tuesday, these two states also account for more than 81 percent of the Trump campaign’s remaining ad reservations through Election Day.
Pennsylvania ($71 million) and Georgia ($38.8 million) dwarf the other states’ ad reservations, with the third-largest being Arizona ($11.2 million).
Vice President Kamala Harris’s campaign is targeting its war chest more evenly across the seven key states. But apart from the “blue wall” states in the North — Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin — Georgia is its biggest investment. And Pennsylvania has long been the biggest spending target for both campaigns.
