Big tech is often the subject of ridicule in Washington. Despite this, presidential campaigns are sending large amounts of money.
Federal Election Commission records now fully reveal how campaigns spent their money in 2023. The files show millions of dollars being funneled to Silicon Valley to pay for digital advertising, one of the most effective ways to reach voters.
The filings also make clear that the tech giant's other services are just as inevitable for campaigners as they are for everyday Americans.
Take two potential candidates, President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump.
President Trump has sporadically raised antitrust concerns in recent years, going so far as to launch his own social media platform, Truth Social, to circumvent what he calls “biased Big Tech.” reached. But that doesn't mean he won't run ads on Facebook (META) or use Amazon (AMZN) to stock his campaign office this campaign.
President Biden is similarly at the top of his administration waging legal battles against Amazon, Google (GOOG), and Meta, and a lawsuit against Apple (AAPL) is likely not far off. But his presidential campaign still regularly patronizes the same companies.
Biden launched an antitrust effort, saying consolidation in tech and other sectors would create “less choice for workers and consumers alike.” This is clearly a challenge facing his campaign as well.
Presidential candidates have also relied on Big Tech over the past few years while simultaneously criticizing it. The 2020 campaign was notable for candidates like Sen. Elizabeth Warren touting plans to break up these companies on their own platforms.
The world of expensive digital advertising
The Biden and Trump campaigns spent at least $30 million on advertising in 2023. Some of that money went into terrestrial television, but much of it apparently ended up on the books in Facebook's home bases of Menlo Park and Mountain View, California. , California, location of GooglePlex.
Many other companies in the business world, from airlines to restaurants to special event organizers, appear repeatedly in the filings, including a total of about $80 million in general election spending by Mr. Biden and Mr. Trump last year. Advertising accounts for the largest portion of this. FEC records.
The question of exactly how much of these ad budgets ends up in the hands of big tech companies is a little harder to answer because the money flows through third parties.
In 2023, the Trump campaign spent at least $11.5 million in expenses classified as “online advertising” and “published media” to a series of outside companies. Some are trying to track those funds, with Bully Pulpit Interactive telling Axios last year that it tracked hundreds of thousands of funds in Facebook and Google ads in the first months of 2023.
Although the latest data was not immediately available, total spending almost certainly increased throughout the calendar year.
The Biden campaign has similarly funneled millions of dollars to Democratic-backed companies. A name that came up frequently was Gambit Strategies. The company is run by two former Biden aides and focuses on digital advertising, touting its “unparalleled experience in persuading and mobilizing voters online.” Records show he raised more than $8 million from the Biden campaign in 2023.
Representatives for the Biden and Trump campaigns declined to provide Yahoo Finance with more detailed analysis of their spending habits beyond what has been publicly reported.
The spending on Big Tech came despite years of criticism from two of the leaders of these campaigns. In 2023, President Trump called Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg a “weird guy” and spoke of their political differences. Biden has frequently criticized how Facebook and other platforms are handling misinformation about the coronavirus, once saying the platforms are “killing people.”
office supplies and uber
Campaigns that fell short of these top-line advertising numbers had significant spending on a variety of other technology services, according to the filing.
Both campaigns favored Amazon, but for different reasons. The Biden campaign sent about $60,000 to Amazon Web Services to host its website in 2023. The Trump campaign spent similarly, but collected more than $30,000 to buy office supplies for another division of CEO Andy Jassy's company.
Biden and Trump have clashed with Amazon for years.
The Federal Trade Commission under the Biden administration, along with 17 states, filed an antitrust lawsuit against the tech giant, accusing it of using its “monopoly power” to jack up prices. Biden also got into a Twitter spat with Amazon founder and former CEO Jeff Bezos over inflation and corporate taxes in 2022.
Mr. Trump has also had a long-standing feud with Amazon, at times threatening antitrust action against the company during his presidency. “People think this is a very antitrust situation,” President Trump said of Amazon, Google and Facebook in 2018.
Spending on other technologies perhaps more clearly illustrates the different cultures of the two campaigns.
Biden's team appears to be spending a lot of money on Apple products. In 2023, more than $170,000 was spent with an Apple Authorized Service Provider called Mac Business Solutions.
Although Mr. Trump's filing does not appear to have purchased many iPhones or MacBooks, his campaign still spent nearly $9,000 directly with the company on “office equipment.”
When campaign staffers need a ride, the Trump campaign is far more likely to use Uber, and rideshare companies are reportedly paid 10 times more than Lyft. found. Uber Eats also appeared frequently in President Trump's filings.
The Biden team's view on this issue is more complex. Democratic Party aides split fares 50-50 between the two companies, but gave Lyft some support.
Neither campaign appears to have had much direct contact with X, formerly known as Twitter. But Trump's operation apparently paid Elon Musk's company $168 for two premium subscriptions.
Ben Werschkul is Yahoo Finance's Washington correspondent.
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