The Brief

Altogether, $10.5 billion has been spent on campaign ads in the 2024 election cycle, on races from president down to county commissioner, according to data compiled by the ad-tracking firm AdImpact and analyzed by NPR.
That total is up $1 billion from four years ago.

Democrats have outspent Republicans, $5 billion to $4.1 billion, from the beginning of the cycle, starting in January 2023. (Independent, third-party and nonpartisan groups account for the rest.)

Twenty-three states this cycle have seen more than $100 million spent. But one state tops them all: Pennsylvania. An astonishing $1.2 billion has been spent on ads in the state, the first time in U.S. history that a single state has seen more than $1 billion in ads.

Pennsylvania has been a political hotbed in this cycle. In addition to the presidential campaign, which has dumped in $576 million in ads, there are also competitive Senate and House races in the state. The Senate contest has seen $344 million, and that’s not even the most money spent on a Senate race. That honor belongs to Ohio, where about $518 million in ads have run.

Across the country, about $3 billion has been spent on the presidential election, including the primaries. That’s slightly lower than 2020, but that was skewed by former New York Mayor Mike Bloomberg spending $586 million in ads for his failed Democratic primary effort. That was almost as much as the $651 million that President Biden’s campaign spent in the primary and general election against former President Donald Trump.

About $2.6 billion of this year’s total has gone to general election efforts, which started unofficially after Super Tuesday in March.

Since March 6, Democrats — including the Biden and Harris campaigns, as well as outside groups supporting them — have outspent Republicans, $1.6 billion to $956 million.

The presidential campaign has been concentrated in seven states. Almost $4 out of every $5 spent for the presidential election has gone to Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, Georgia, North Carolina, Arizona and Nevada.

Democrats have outspent Republicans in each of the seven states. The most, $578 million, went to none other than Pennsylvania. Each party spent more than a quarter of all their ad money in the Keystone state.

The amount of money spent in the presidential election is remarkable compared to 2020, considering how much smaller the field of competitive states is and that Florida is out of the ad-spending picture.

In 2020, $371 million was spent in the general election on Florida, an expensive place to buy ads because of its multiple media markets. This year, only $4 million has been spent there.

In 2020, the most money spent was on Georgia. It was hotly contested in the presidential election and had a Senate runoff. But with all races combined in Georgia in 2020, $787 million was spent, almost half-a-billion dollars less than the spending seen in Pennsylvania this year. Georgia has seen the third-most spending specifically in the presidential election this year, $304 million, behind Pennsylvania and Michigan ($376 million).

The biggest spenders in this election include the presidential campaigns, committees trying to elect candidates to the Senate and House, as well as several outside groups.

Here are the top 10 spenders:

1. Harris for President (D) $513 million

2. FF PAC (D) $441 million

3. MAGA Inc. (R) $360 million

4. WinSenate (D) $353 million

5. Trump for President (R) $327 million

6. Senate Leadership Fund (R) $224 million

7. House Majority PAC (D) $207 million

8. Congressional Leadership Fund (R) $201 million

9. Biden for President (D) $111 million

10. Harris Victory Fund (D) $111 million

The ads with the most money behind them are from outside groups:

$36 million: FF PAC

More money has been spent on this ad, running since Oct. 22, than on any other. It’s from the pro-Harris outside group, FF PAC. It highlights a man who says he’s “a lifelong Republican” and voted for Trump twice, but is now voting for Harris.

$26.7 million: MAGA Inc.

This ad focuses on Harris’ record as a prosecutor and tries to paint her as a San Francisco liberal. It has run on heavy circulation since Oct. 9 in five of the seven swing states: North Carolina, Georgia, Arizona, Pennsylvania and Michigan.

These are the top-two ads from the campaigns:

Harris campaign: economy contrast

This contrast ad focuses on what Harris wants to do for the economy compared to Trump. The Harris campaign has spent $19 million on this ad and has run it widely.

Trump campaign: cutting taxes

The Trump campaign has left the heavy lifting in the ad race to MAGA Inc., the principal outside group supporting his candidacy. The most the campaign has spent on a single ad has been this digital ad about ending taxes on Social Security benefits and tips.

Copyright 2024 NPR

Los Angeles’ regional homelessness agency is working to find ways to keep thousands of people in their homes, while complying with new federal funding restrictions on permanent housing.

The governing board for the L.A. Homeless Services Authority voted Monday to start the process of reallocating about $130 million in federal funding currently being spent on permanent housing to other projects meant to serve unhoused Angelenos.

Because of new funding restrictions from the U.S. Office of Housing and Urban Development, known as HUD, about 5,000 households in the county will lose their rental subsidies, according to several LAHSA officials who spoke at a commission meeting Monday.

Those changes, along with state and county funding shortfalls for homeless services, threaten to drastically worsen the region’s homelessness crisis, they said.

"The fact of the matter is there’s going to be a tremendous and terrible impact on people, on agencies, on landlords,” said Nathaniel VerGow, LAHSA’s chief program officer.

Officials said they’re scrambling to maximize federal funding under the new guidelines while also advocating against the new HUD policy.

“It is a cliff and it feels catastrophic, but I think it forces us as a region to figure out how to save ourselves,” LAHSA Commission Chair Amber Sheikh said.

The funding challenge

Most federal homelessness dollars flow into the L.A. region through the Continuum of Care program, managed by HUD.

The Los Angeles region is eligible for more than $260 million in federal funding under that program in the coming fiscal year, including $217 million for existing projects.

But no more than 30% of those funds can go toward permanent housing projects, according to a “notice of funding opportunity” HUD issued last month.

That’s a challenge for L.A. County, because 90% of regional HUD funds currently cover people’s rent, according to LASHA officials.

Instead, L.A. and other cities and counties must spend the bulk of their federal funds on other interventions, including transitional housing and street outreach.

HUD officials have said the policy is meant to encourage self-sufficiency.

At Monday’s meeting, Commissioner Justin Szlasa urged his colleagues to consider larger funding trends.

“ There's actually a 23% increase in available funding from HUD, the federal government,” he said. “It just doesn't work with the way that we normally have done things here.”

“We need to find, in this crisis, a way to be constructive about this,” Szlasa added.

HUD policy changes

HUD released its new notice of funding opportunity last month and rescinded a previous two-year funding agreement.

Opponents have concerns with the federal housing department’s move away from “housing first” approaches. They also said HUD rolled out the changes without providing enough time to prepare service providers and clients for disruptions.

Last week, 21 states, including California, sued HUD, claiming the new federal policies “essentially guarantee that tens of thousands of formerly homeless individuals and families will be evicted back into homelessness.”

This week, a group of cities and homelessness organizations also sued over the changes. Plaintiffs include the city and county of San Francisco. The Continuum of Care for San Francisco was awarded $56 million in federal funding for Fiscal Year 2024.

Approximately 91% of that funding supports permanent housing projects, according to the complaint.

What’s next?

The LAHSA Commission voted Monday to approve its request for applications for existing and new projects.

Providers must submit applications to LAHSA over the next two weeks, and LAHSA has until Jan. 14 to craft and submit a new application to HUD.

The agency is now talking with 130 contractors about the transition.

LAHSA is also working with some permanent supportive housing providers to convert their programs to transitional housing instead, officials said.

People who were in permanent housing projects aren’t eligible for transitional housing under HUD’s guidelines because they're not considered unhoused, VerGow said.

The commission also reviewed a policy for ranking project applications and prioritizing them for federal funding. Officials said that policy has to be approved at a LAHSA Commission subcommittee on Dec. 10.

Funds are expected to be awarded in May 2026.

LOS ANGELES — As the season of Advent begins, many Christians turn toward quiet reflection and preparation for Christmas. But in several Southern California congregations with large immigrant communities, that sacred anticipation is shadowed by a looming sense of fear.

For worshippers like Mike, an Iranian asylum-seeker who attends a West Los Angeles church, the weeks leading up to Christmas feel less like a spiritual refuge and more like a time of apprehension. He asked that only the anglicized version of his Farsi name be used because he fears speaking publicly could affect his immigration case. He fled Iran after converting to Christianity.

"I kept this secret, my faith as a secret, for like 12 years," he said.

Mike arrived in Los Angeles 18 months ago and says he has tried to build a life rooted in community and respect for his new home. But a series of immigration enforcement actions in the region — including the June arrests of two men outside a nearby church with a large Iranian membership — has shaken him.

"Even church is not safe because it's a public place," he said. "They can get there and catch you."

The Department of Homeland Security says enforcement actions at churches require secondary approval and are expected to be rare. Still, the concern is real inside Mike's congregation, where church leaders asked that the name of the church not be published.

A significant number of Iranian parishioners worship there, and the pastor often invites them to pray in Farsi during services. Lately, fewer take her up on the offer.

"It's part of the heartbreak of these days," the pastor said. "They feel like they have to be apprehensive about it — not even wanting to speak in their own language here."

She said the fear is especially painful during Advent, a season she describes as a time to prepare to "give thanks for this God we have who wants to be with us."

Room at the inn, despite fears

East of Los Angeles, at Baldwin Park United Methodist Church, Pastor Toña Rios unzips a red tent pitched in the middle of the sanctuary. For years, the church took in newly arrived immigrants, providing a place to sleep while they looked for work and housing.

The tent remains as a reminder of that welcome — and of the fears many congregants now carry. Rios estimates that about 80% of her church members are immigrants and says many don't have legal status.

"A lot of them say, 'Don't open the door. Just close the door,'" she said.

Rios urges a different posture, especially during Advent. She uses the tent to help her congregation imagine being the ones who offer shelter, not shut others out.

"It is very hard," she said. "But Jesus is going to be born in our heart. That's why we need to be prepared."

For longtime church member Royi Lopez, the sense of vulnerability goes beyond immigration status. Lopez is a U.S. citizen but says she often feels targeted because she is Latina. Many of her relatives are undocumented, and she worries constantly about them.

"What if on my way to church, they catch us?" she said. "On a daily basis, we're scared of going to the school, to work, to church, to even the grocery store."

Lopez says that during Advent, these fears remind her of the Christmas story itself — of Mary and Joseph searching for somewhere to stay, turned away again and again until somebody finally took them in.

"Even though so many doors were closed, somebody opened a door," she said.

That theme of welcome runs through the hymn chosen for every Sunday of Advent at Baldwin Park United Methodist Church, "All Earth is Hopeful." Its lyrics speak of a world longing for liberation, where people labor to "see how God's truth and justice set everybody free."
Copyright 2025 NPR

The Supreme Court today is hearing a billion-dollar case about whether internet providers can be liable for their users' committing copyright violations using their services.

The legal battle pits the music entertainment industry against Cox Communications, which provides internet to over 6 million residences and business.

A coalition of music labels, which represent artists such as Sabrina Carpenter, Givēon and Doechii, sued Cox alleging that company should be responsible for the copyright violations of internet users that Cox had been warned were serial copyright abusers.

The coalition argues Cox was sent numerous notices of specific IP addresses repeatedly violating music copyrights and that Cox's failure to terminate those IP addresses from internet access means that Cox should face the music.

In its briefs, the coalition argued many of Cox's anti-infringement measurements seem superficial and the company willingly overlooked violations.

The coalition points out that Cox had a 13-strike policy for potentially terminating infringing customers, under which Cox acted against a customer based on how many complaints it received about a particular user. The Cox manager who oversaw the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, the law at issue in this case, told his team to "F the dmca!!!"

"Cox made a deliberate and egregious decision to elevate its own profits over compliance with the law," the coalition asserts.

The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals and a jury agreed with the coalition, with the jury awarding the coalition more than a billion dollars in damages.

Cox argues it should not be liable for its customers' actions as it never encouraged the copyright infringements, its terms of service prohibit illegal activities, and it does not make additional money when customers use its internet to infringe on copyrights.

In its briefs, Cox specified that less than 1% of its users infringe on music copyrights and that its internal compliance measures "got 95% of that less than 1% to stop." It asserts that if the Supreme Court does not side with them, then "that means terminating entire households, coffee shops, hospitals, universities and even regional internet service providers (ISPs) — the internet lifeline for tens of thousands of homes and businesses — merely because some unidentified person was previously alleged to have used the connection to infringe."

A decision in the case is expected this summer.

Copyright 2025 NPR