President Obama’s reelection campaign is bombarding his opponent, former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, with a flurry of television advertising in swing states that are crucial to the success of both candidates. An effective television advertising campaign in a swing state can mean the difference between victory and defeat on Election Day.
Year-to-date through the beginning of September, the Obama campaign has flooded this election’s nine key battleground states with almost 230,000 ads, more than twice the ads from Romney’s campaign (87,000). The Obama campaign has placed significantly more ads in all swing states, except Wisconsin, where the Romney campaign led by a small margin of 561 ads.
While advertising units vary from state to state, Ohio represents the swing state with the greatest disparity between the campaigns’ respective advertising efforts: the Romney campaign ran over 17,000 ad units in Ohio, while Obama’s has run nearly three times that amount (51,000 ads). No Republican presidential candidate has ever secured victory without the help of Ohio’s electoral votes.
