With tens of millions, Ron DeSantis’s campaign is dominating the airwaves in race for governor

With Hurricane Ian bearing down on Florida, political advertising may slow down in the coming days. That would put a pause on what has so far been an overwhelming advantage in TV this month for Gov. Ron DeSantis over Charlie Crist in the race for Florida governor.

Between Sept. 5-18, 2022, there were more than 13,000 broadcasts touting DeSantis’ candidacy for reelection, vs. just 881 ads with a pro-Crist message. That’s a 15-1 discrepancy, according to a blog post at the Wesleyan Media Project.

DeSantis also dominated on social media during that two-week period, spending $470,000 on Facebook and Google, while Crist spent $45,000. Crist is a former Republican governor, Attorney General and Education Commissioner before he became a Democrat and Congressman. (Crist recently resigned his U.S. House seat to campaign for governor.)