Billionaire Tom Steyer is spending more than every other presidential candidate on Facebook advertisements even as he struggles to gain the kind of attention President Donald Trump typically generates.
New Facebook data shows that Steyer, a stringent anti-Trump advocate, spent $284,960 from July 14 through July 20 on Facebook ads, a number dwarfing other presidential candidates. He has already dropped $1 million in television advertising time.
His ads promote his work campaigning to impeach the president, flaunt Steyer’s supposed ability to make climate change an important issue in the 2020 presidential contest. Other ads state that the environmentalist is the best option to subvert corporate influence in American politics.
Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, another candidate, slid into second place on spending during that period of time.
The New York Democrat spent $195,772 with ads including some criticizing Trump’s supposed “contempt for women and anyone who threatens this president’s fragile ego.” Gillibrand also ran ads promoting her pro-choice positions and calling on supporters to help her reach the September Democratic debate’s 130,000 unique donor threshold.
Trump’s “Make America Great Again Committee” spent $160,581, making it the third-highest spending campaign of the week.
Steyer’s cash doesn’t appear to help him obtain media mentions. News articles about Trump generated more than 23.2 million interactions after the president went after four unpopular liberal lawmakers, according to NewsWhip, a social-media metrics company. NewsWhip’s data show that Steyer received 271,000 interactions at the end of July 14.
Trump outperformed all of the Democratic presidential candidates. Articles about the Democratic candidates earlier in July generated only a combined 6.5 million social media interactions in a week, the fewest since January.
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