Every remaining 2020 Democrat is outspending Joe Biden on Super Tuesday ads

Former Vice President Joe Biden isn't exactly acting like he's a 2020 frontrunner again.

Tuesday's wave of Democratic primary contests will be the first proving ground for former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, and he has dumped more than $170 million into TV and radio ad spending in those states in an attempt to win big. But Biden, who easily won the last primary in South Carolina and has a narrow second place in the delegate count, has spent less than a hundredth of that total: His campaign racked up just $1.5 million in Super Tuesday state ad spending, CBS News reports.

Even billionaire philanthropist Tom Steyer beat out Biden's spending despite the fact that Steyer dropped out of the race Saturday night. But that doesn't mean Biden doesn't have ads touting his case across states voting this Tuesday. The Biden-supporting Unite the Country PAC outspent Biden on ads in Iowa in New Hampshire, and recently said it would roll out a "low six-figure" ad buy in competitive Super Tuesday states on his behalf.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

Beyond Bloomberg, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) is the only other candidate "airing TV and radio ads in nearly all Super Tuesday states," CBS News reports. And Sanders hasn't turned to PAC money to buy those ads thanks to the monumental $46.5 million in small-money donations he raised in February.