Republican candidates and their allies have bombarded Iowa residents with more than $123 million in advertising, breaking the pace set during the 2020 caucuses.
The three leading Republican presidential candidates – Donald Trump, Nikki Haley and Ron DeSantis – and their allied super PACs account for more than 70% of all the ad spending in Iowa since the start of 2023, which amounts to more than $90 million. The $123 million in ad spending far outpaces the $84 million that campaigns and groups had spent on advertising ahead of the 2020 Iowa caucuses, when Democrats were battling to become their party’s standard-bearer.
In recent weeks, Haley and DeSantis – who are jockeying to emerge as the leading alternative to Trump, the Iowa polling front-runner – have pummeled one another on the airwaves with blistering ads that accuse their opponent of failing to confront the economic and national security threat posed by China and attacking their records as governor. All the while, they’ve largely steered clear of targeting Trump.
Haley’s political network has spent the most on advertising in the Hawkeye State, with the super PAC supporting her campaign, SFA Fund, ranking as the top advertiser after spending over $31 million on ads. Haley’s campaign has spent an additional $4.9 million on its own advertising.
Behind Haley, DeSantis’ operation has spent the second-most on Iowa advertising – a trio of super PACs formed to support his presidential bid has spent over $31 million on ads in Iowa, while DeSantis’ campaign chipped in about $3 million more in advertising there.
Meanwhile, Trump’s super PAC, MAGA Inc., has spent about $11.4 million advertising in Iowa, ranking as the third largest individual advertiser, and his campaign has spent an additional $6.8 million. The Trump network’s combined ad spending is significantly less than his two leading challengers and their allies. Still, Trump has consistently enjoyed a wide polling lead in the first nominating state.
All other candidates have combined to spend about $33 million advertising in Iowa since the start of 2023, with a significant share of that total coming from South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott’s unsuccessful presidential bid – his campaign and an allied super PAC combined to spend over $14 million advertising in Iowa before he dropped out of the race in November.
Since the start of 2024, in the critical stretch leading up to the caucuses, Haley’s political network has held the advantage on Iowa airwaves. Her campaign and allied super PAC have combined to spend more than $7.8 million advertising in Iowa in the new year, compared to about $6.1 million worth of pro-DeSantis advertising and about $3.5 million worth of pro-Trump advertising over the same period.
Closing ads
The tens of millions of ad dollars have powered a flood of sharp attack ads, as the rival candidates and their allies ratcheted up their criticism in the home stretch of the race.
The ad with the most money behind it on Iowa airwaves since the start of the new year is an attack spot from SFA Fund, the pro-Haley super PAC, targeting DeSantis and accusing him of weakness on the issue of China – a major point of contention in the 2024 GOP presidential primary, regularly mentioned in ads.
“DeSantis is lying because he’s losing,” the ad’s narrator says. “DeSantis called China Florida’s most important trading partner. DeSantis even allowed a Chinese military contractor to expand just miles from a US naval base. Phony Ron DeSantis – too lame to lead, too weak to win.”
SFA Fund has also put hundreds of thousands of dollars behind another attack ad targeting DeSantis, calling his campaign a “dumpster fire” while featuring critical headlines from coverage of his White House bid.
Meanwhile, DeSantis’ operation is hitting back with its own spot, accusing Haley of failing to confront China. “Tricky Nikki pretends she’s tough on China. But as governor, she promised to do whatever it takes to get Chinese companies set up in our backyard,” the ad from a pro-DeSantis super PAC says. “We just can’t trust tricky Nikki.”
The ad the DeSantis campaign has put the most money behind since the start of the new year targets both Haley and Trump, leaning into culture wars. The spot accuses Haley of “supporting the radical trans agenda,” and says that Trump is “no better.” “Ron DeSantis has stood firm,” the ad says, with a clip of DeSantis at a debate telling Haley, “No surgeries on minors, protect girls’ sports for little girls. You didn’t do it.”
In the final days before the first votes, DeSantis’ campaign and its allied super PACs also seized on Haley’s remark that New Hampshire, home to the second nominating contest, “corrects” the results of Iowa’s caucuses. Fight Right, one of the super PACs, launched an ad in Iowa saying that “Nikki doesn’t respect you,” adding, “why should Iowans support another fake politician who disrespects them?”
The closing ad from DeSantis’ campaign similarly highlights Haley’s comment. “Haley disparages the caucuses and insults them. It’s Ron DeSantis who embodies and defends Iowa’s values of faith, family and freedom,” the ad says.
By contrast, the Haley campaign’s closing ad does not mention either DeSantis or Trump. It instead promotes Haley’s pitch for new leadership. “Imagine a president with grit and grace, a different style, not a name from the past,” the ad’s narrator says.
Trump has largely avoided criticism on the Iowa airwaves, as Haley and DeSantis have devoted only a fraction of their ad budgets to targeting the front-runner compared to the sums they’ve directed toward attacking each other. In the closing days of the race, however, allies of Haley and DeSantis have taken a few shots at the former president.
Good Fight, one of the pro-DeSantis super PACs, launched an ad in Iowa in the final weeks that knocks Trump’s response to the coronavirus pandemic, saying, “One man shut the country down and added $8 trillion to the national debt.” The ad includes a clip of DeSantis reciting one of his attack lines frequently heard on the trail: “Trump is running on his issues. Haley is running on her donors’ issues. I’m the only one running on your issues.”
In addition, SFA Fund, the pro-Haley super PAC, produced an ad last week that features one of the indirect critiques of Trump that Haley often delivers on the trail, as she says that “we don’t need any more drama and chaos.”
With Haley and DeSantis largely attacking each other, the top ads from Trump’s network in Iowa since the start of 2024 have had a decidedly general-election feel. One spot criticizes the Biden administration while touting Trump’s first-term economic record. “Under Biden, your investments fell, along with other things. Trump, he’ll make America’s economy great again,” the ad says.
Another top ad from Trump’s campaign focuses on national security, referencing foreign crises and border security concerns. “While the world burns, Joe Biden has created a violent threat in our own backyard,” the ad says. “President Trump had our border secured and he’ll do it again by building even more wall and stopping people from terrorist countries from ever entering.”
But trolling DeSantis to the end, Trump’s campaign has also spent a few thousand dollars airing a 30-second ad full of clips of DeSantis praising the former president before he decided to challenge him for the 2024 GOP nomination.
Top overall ads
Over the course of the race to the caucuses, the campaigns and their allies have aired dozens of other attacks, mocking each other and seizing on vulnerabilities in each other’s records.
The top ad from Haley’s team in Iowa overall, which her super PAC has spent over $1.7 million airing, calls DeSantis a “disaster” and touts Haley’s electability, comparing her performance in general election polls to DeSantis and Trump. “Trump barely squeaks by, and DeSantis doesn’t beat Biden at all. Phony and failing. A weaker nominee than Trump. Ron DeSantis: too lame to lead, too weak to win,” the ad says.
The pro-Haley super PAC has also spent more than $1.5 million airing another ad mocking DeSantis for mimicking Trump, with side-by-side clips of the Florida governor echoing Trump’s rhetoric and movements, and hammering the refrain: “Ron DeSantis: too lame to lead, too weak to win.”
In addition, SFA Fund has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars airing ads that tout Haley’s foreign policy experience, highlighting her time as the Trump administration’s ambassador to the United Nations.
Haley’s own campaign has focused on promoting her bid more than attacking her rivals in its ads – the top spot from the campaign over the course of the Iowa race focuses on electability, arguing that “the Biden team is worried that if Nikki Haley gets that nomination, they could be in trouble.”
DeSantis’ team has varied its advertising over the course of the race, with competing super PACs that support his campaign emerging to take the lead and trying different approaches.
Never Back Down initially led outside efforts to support DeSantis, after receiving tens of millions that the Florida governor had stockpiled in his state political committee before entering the race. But after criticism of its management of resources and staff turmoil, Fight Right and Good Fight, two other super PACs, formed to contribute to the pro-DeSantis advertising effort.
Over the summer of last year, Never Back Down spent tens of millions on several ads promoting DeSantis’ biography and his record as Florida governor. One of the top ads from the group, which it spent over $1 million airing, draws implicit contrasts between DeSantis and Trump without explicitly mentioning the former president. “In 2024, we have a choice. One man worked his way through Yale and Harvard Law. One did not. One volunteered to serve his nation in wartime. One did not. One man stood up to Fauci and fought for freedom. One did not. One man won historic re-election, and one did not,” the ad says.
Never Back Down also spent hundreds of thousands on ads promoting Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds’ coveted endorsement, which DeSantis secured in November. Reynolds appeared in multiple pro-DeSantis ads, saying in one that “Ron is focused, principled and results driven. He gets things done.” The group also produced ads criticizing Trump for attacking Reynolds, saying that “instead of looking to America’s future, Trump is busy attacking Republican governors.”
In recent months, Fight Right and Good Fight – the two new super PACs – have supplanted Never Back Down as the lead pro-DeSantis advertisers, airing millions worth of ads largely targeting Haley, with whom DeSantis is locked in a bitter fight for second place.
Fight Right in particular has trained its fire on Haley, producing seven unique ads all targeting the former South Carolina governor, airing several that unfavorably compare Haley to former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and others that accuse her of flip-flopping on issues such as the gas tax.
Good Fight, the third pro-DeSantis super PAC to form, has included a softer approach to its pro-DeSantis messaging – its top ad features his wife Casey, promoting his personal values and sharing details about his support during her battle with breast cancer.
“If you want to know who Ron DeSantis really is, when I was diagnosed with cancer and I was facing the battle for my life. He was the dad who took care of my children when I couldn’t, he was there to pick me off of the ground when I literally could not stand,” Casey DeSantis says in the ad.
Meanwhile, Trump’s top ad in Iowa over the course of the campaign, with more than $1.4 million behind it, is another broad appeal to voters promoting his first-term record. “President Trump made us safer, wealthier, and more secure. Under Trump, prices were low and groceries were affordable. Trump took on China and won. Jobs were coming home. And Trump secured our border. But bumbling Biden’s made a mess,” the ad says.
Another top ad from Trump’s super PAC in Iowa over the last year touts his wide lead in the Republican primary, saying, “The reason Donald Trump’s dominating the race? What he did for us and what he’ll do for us.” The ad goes on to list several of Trump’s proposals to tackle illegal immigration.
But earlier in the year, Trump’s team did devote significant resources to attacking DeSantis, who entered the race as one of his leading potential challengers. One of the ads from Trump’s super PAC, which aired over the summer with hundreds of thousands of dollars behind it, claims DeSantis would hike prices on Americans by raising the national sales tax, with mocking images and the tagline, “We can’t afford Ron De-sales tax.”
Trump’s super PAC also spent hundreds of thousands more over the summer on an ad warning Iowa voters that DeSantis would go after Social Security. “Ron DeSantis tried to cut seniors benefits in Congress,” the ad says. “Desantis voted three times to cut Social Security, even to privatize Medicare. Worse, DeSantis wanted to raise the retirement age to 70.”
CNN’s Fredreka Schouten contributed to this story.