Senator Doug Jones’ (D-AL) campaign has spent $59,902 on 166 Facebook ads in an attempt to raise money off of his vote to impeach President Donald Trump last week, according to data from Facebook’s publicly available ad library.
According to the library, 18% of the ad buy was directed towards Alabamians, with the rest being seen by out-of-state voters. The data shows 21% of the money spent went to attracting eyeballs in California and New York. The money spent by the campaign in the last week amounts to more than half of the organization’s total Facebook spending over the life of the campaign.
One of the ads reads, “Doug Jones did his Constitutional duty and voted to convict President Trump. Now he’s under attack by far-right extremists. Do you have his back?” It is followed by an exhortation to donate to the Doug Jones campaign.
Data from Facebook’s ad library says the campaign spent $2.5-$3K on the “Constitutional duty” ad, which was placed where it would be seen by almost zero Alabamians.
A read-through of the available ads shows that when the junior senator’s campaign does target the state he represents, the language is often less directly tied to impeachment, and rarely mentions the president by name.
The Jones campaign spent over $2,000 showing two ads exclusively to citizens of Alabama. Both ads insinuate Jones is “under attack” for “doing what’s right.”
Fresh polling from ALDailyNews has the president enjoying a 58% approval rating among Alabama’s citizens, including 56% among independent voters. Due to Alabama’s heavy Republican lean, independents are a group that Jones would need to do very well with to have any chance of winning a full term in the Senate.
Jones has about 103,000 Facebook followers on his campaign page, which dwarfs his Republican opponents. Former Auburn head football coach Tommy Tuberville and Rep. Bradley Byrne (R-Fairhope) both have around 27,000 followers. Former Attorney General Jeff Sessions has about 8.7K after only launching his page in early November 2019.
The Republican campaigns have also been investing in Facebook ads recently. In the last week, Byrne has spent $4,282, Tuberville has spent $2,340, while Sessions has spent $1,611.
One of those Republicans will face off with Jones on November 3.
Henry Thornton is a staff writer for Yellowhammer News. You can contact him by email: [email protected] or on Twitter @HenryThornton95.
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