ATLANTA — The presidential campaign has become a financial arms race in Georgia.
"What we're seeing is, in metro Atlanta, each side is spending millions of dollars a week on television advertising," said UGA Political Science Professor Charles Bullock.
Internal 11Alive ad spending data shows the Harris and Trump campaigns, along with supportive outside groups, have spent more than $116 million on television advertising in Atlanta alone since the start of the year.
Republicans have slightly outspent Democrats on Atlanta TV airwaves by about $5 million, the data shows.
From October 7 to October 20, Atlanta was the number one television market in the country by volume and cost for presidential campaign broadcast ads, according to the Wesleyan Media Project.
Add in all the other costs of running a modern campaign -- like digital ads, rallies, and staff -- and Republican strategist Spiro Amburn says those figures get even bigger.
"The last numbers I heard was probably somewhere around $250 million in total between both campaigns, [political action committees], special interest groups, and that sort of thing," said Amburn.
Howard Franklin, a Democratic strategist, agreed.
"For Democrats, it's a tremendous amount," he said. "I think it's more than we've ever seen spent on a presidential race."
"We have just become a sinkhole for money," Professor Bullock added.
"I think it says that Georgia really matters," said Amburn, when asked what all the spending says about our state's political importance.
But even with all the campaign money flowing into Georgia, one resource remains limited.
"You can go out and hire more staff, you can get more volunteers, but you can't get more time," Bullock said. "Therefore, it is also telling how much time the four candidates and also their top surrogates are spending in Georgia. Their internal polls are showing what we're seeing in the public polls and that is that this is a very close state and it could tilt either way."
