Joe Biden is missing in action.
The former vice president's seemingly untouchable polling lead has been leapfrogged a handful of times over the past few weeks, namely by Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.). That would imply that it's time for Biden to double down and reach out to more voters, but his online advertising is suggesting he's doing the opposite, The New York Times reports.
In the month leading up to the September Democratic debate, Biden spent just $32,000 on Facebook ads, per the Times. That's less than five candidates who didn't make the stage spent, and less than two candidates who dropped out during that time. It's also a huge plunge from the $1.2 million Biden spent on Facebook and Google ads in the first two weeks after his April campaign launch. Instead, Biden has shifted his ad spending to TV ads — a move that Zac Moffatt, who ran Mitt Romney's digital operations, said "reeks of desperation." "You are spending at least a third to half your life on your mobile phone, and they're deciding they don't need to have a message for you there," Moffatt told the Times.
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Meanwhile, Sen. Cory Booker's (D-N.J.) 2020 campaign has a bit of good news: It hit its $1.7 million fundraising goal for 2019's third fundraising quarter, from July to September. If that didn't happen, Booker says he would've ended his campaign. Still, that's nowhere near the totals top-tier candidates raised during the second quarter, and only about a third of Booker's Q2 total of $4.5 million.
