Trump, Biden shower ad money on Phoenix, Philadelphia, Florida?s I-4 corridor in final stretch

But Biden was expected to outpace Trump again after big fundraising days following the death of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and after a chaotic debate with Trump.The fundraising advantage allowed Biden's campaign to buy twice as many television ads in key battlegrounds and outspend Trump's campaign nationwide.Biden has spent $223 million airing television ads 356,366 times since April 9, according to the Wesleyan Media Project. For comparison, Trump spent $161 million on 261,633 airings during the same period, the study found.During September, Biden spent $153 million on television and radio ads, nearly tripling Trump’s $57 million, according to the tracking firm Advertising Analytics. 28 through Oct. 11, Biden’s campaign spent nearly $56 million to air television ads 80,000 times while Trump’s campaign spent nearly $32 million to air ads 32,000 times, according to the Wesleyan Media Project.“Although the impact of ads in presidential races tends to be fairly small, Biden’s consistent ad advantages of two-to-one or even three-to-one in the battleground states has to account for at least some of his expanding lead in the polls over the past few weeks,” said Travis Ridout, co-director of the Wesleyan Media Project.Trump has outpaced Biden in online ads throughout the campaign, although Biden is catching up in the closing weeks. For comparison, Biden spent $130.1 million on online ads since mid-April and $34.7 million since late September, according to the study.During September, Biden outspent Trump 2-to-1 on television ads in North Carolina and Florida, 3-to-1 in Michigan and 4-to-1 in Pennsylvania, according to Advertising Analytics.One of the latest hotspots has been Phoenix, which is competitive for both the presidency and the Senate, where $24.4 million was spent the week ending Oct. 9, according to Advertising Analytics."I think spending indicates that both campaigns believe that Arizona is in play," said Kim Fridkin, foundation professor of political science at Arizona State University and co-author of "Taking Aim at Attack Advertising.""Biden's advertising is making the case that COVID-19 needs to be controlled before we can bring back the economy and that may resonate with voters," said Fridkin, who acknowledged she hasn't conducted a systematic analysis of the ads.