The campaign of President-elect Donald Trump used streaming services to match ads to individuals so it could reach a disproportionate share of persuadable voters in seven swing states, a strategic move that helped offset Vice President Kamala Harris' huge financial advantage and aided Trump in winning the 2024 presidential election, The New York Times reported.
"In the seven states, we were talking to 6.3 million people — they were talking to 44.7 million," David Lee, a top pollster for the super PAC, Make America Great Again Inc., told the Times.
"There's roughly 38 million people that they're hitting who've already made up their mind. So, I don't care how much more money you have than us to spend, you're wasting 85 percent of your money."
The Harris campaign targeted ads on streaming services only by geography.
"I did not believe it because it makes no sense," Chris Grant, a consultant for the Trump super PAC, said of their approach. "The Democrats didn't have to be creative because they had so much money, they could be stupid with it. We needed to make our money go farther."
Finding ways to spend money on ads efficiently was key – the Trump super PAC spent about $80 million on streaming advertisements – and it did so by tapping into data.
Tony Fabrizio, the lead pollster for the main Trump super PAC who later joined the Trump campaign, commissioned a 20,000-person survey in early 2024 to study how undecided voters they got their news.
He found that most of them could be found on streaming services.
Steve Passwaiter, a political advertising consultant who was not involved in the 2024 race, called streaming ads a "very precise tool.
"We can take this tool we used to use like a shotgun — and spray and pray," he told the Times.
"It's a new game now," he added.
Solange Reyner ✉
Solange Reyner is a writer and editor for Newsmax. She has more than 15 years in the journalism industry reporting and covering news, sports and politics.
© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.