What Joe Biden's Facebook ads reveal about his campaign strategy

(Image credit: Dustin Chambers/Getty Images)

published 10 June 2019

Has Joe Biden given up on courting younger voters?

Judging by the former vice president's Facebook ad buys, that seems to be the case. From the time he joined the 2020 presidential race, Biden has "disproportionately focused" his Facebook ads on voters 45 years and older — a strategy "no other top Democratic candidate" has taken on, Politico reports.

Biden has spent $1.2 million on Facebook ads since launching his campaign in April. And from then until May 25, Biden has directed 83 percent of that funding toward ads targeted at voters 45 and up. Those voters "make up an estimated 62 percent of likely Democratic primary voters," Politico reports via data from Democratic digital firm Pulpit Interactive, making them a pretty solid path to the Democratic nomination.

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The ad spending has matched Biden's overall centrist strategy, marked by leftward-moving but not-quite-groundbreaking stances on abortion rights and climate change. He's alone in this approach, and it has earned him tacit criticism from the more progressive challengers in his party. And yet it's definitely working, seeing as poll after poll shows Biden putting the constant second place finisher Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) further behind him.

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Kathryn is a graduate of Syracuse University, with degrees in magazine journalism and information technology, along with hours to earn another degree after working at SU's independent paper The Daily Orange. She's currently recovering from a horse addiction while living in New York City, and likes to share her extremely dry sense of humor on Twitter.

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