Sen. Elizabeth Warren. | Scott Olson/Getty Images 2020 elections Warren announces $10 million-plus ad buy in early states

Elizabeth Warren’s presidential campaign on Tuesday announced an early-state ad campaign of at least $10 million, suggesting that the Massachusetts senator is continuing to raise big money from grass-roots donors after an anemic start.

The campaign told POLITICO that a digital ad campaign would begin immediately and that they are currently reserving television time, with the entire buy ramping up over the next few months. The campaign declined to say when its spending on digital and TV ads would reach eight figures.


“Right now, our biggest expense as a campaign is our staff, but as the campaign heats up, it will be on media to reach potential voters," campaign manager Roger Lau wrote in a memo emailed to supporters Tuesday morning. The campaign "will be more digital than old-school broadcast television.”

The campaign also released three ads Tuesday — 15-second, 30-second, and 1-minute spots — which highlight Warren’s policy plans and her intention to crack down on corruption in government.

The shorter ads both end with: “I’m Elizabeth Warren. I know what’s wrong. I know how to fix it. And I’ll fight to get it done.” The longest one finishes with footage from Warren’s recent rally in New York City and concludes with her saying, “It’s corruption: pure and simple. We must root it out and return our democracy to the people. And yes, I got a plan for that.”

Lau echoed that message in his memo, writing, "We've released dozens of plans in the past seven months, but they're really one big, simple plan: to break the stranglehold of corruption on Washington and put political and economic power in the hands of the people, where it belongs.”

The ad campaign will be a test of Warren’s in-house production team, which she adopted instead of the standard consultant and media-buying campaign model. Warren's team said all three ads were produced inside the campaign.

“We have built an in-house staff to produce videos and ads rather than adopt the consultant-driven approach of other campaigns (and the big commissions and fees that come along with it),” Lau wrote.

Warren has already been one of the biggest spenders online, devoting $4.5 million to Facebook and Google since the beginning of the year, according to data compiled by ACRONYM. That trailed behind Tom Steyer and Pete Buttigieg, who have spent about $6.7 million and $4.9 million on the two platforms, respectively. But Warren’s 8-figure ad buy is an indication that her spending is about to increase dramatically.

Besides Steyer and Kirsten Gillibrand, who dropped out in August, no candidate has spent more than six-figures on television advertising so far, according to Advertising Analytics. Steyer, a billionaire investor and activist, has dwarfed the field with $16 million in TV ad spending. Tulsi Gabbard, Kamala Harris, John Delaney, Buttigieg and Joe Biden have all spent several hundred thousand dollars on TV ads so far.

Lau’s memo is the latest instance of candidates announcing at least part of their strategy for the run-up to the Iowa caucus in February.

Harris’ campaign told reporters earlier this month that she is going all-in on Iowa, doubling her headcount in the state and planning weekly visits. Cory Booker’s campaign manager announced the campaign was in dire financial straits and would potentially withdraw from the race unless it could raise $1.7 million in the last 10 days of the third quarter. And Biden’s aides held a background briefing with reporters earlier this month in which they downplayed expectations in the early contests of Iowa and New Hampshire. The memos and briefings also come in the final weeks of the third fundraising quarter.

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The Warren campaign also released a memo near the end of the first fundraising quarter, when several other candidates significantly outraised Warren’s underwhelming $6 million. The memo downplayed expectations by casting Warren as an “underdog,” and took aim at some of the punditry surrounding her electability.

“Neither President Barack Obama nor President Donald Trump fit the idea of ‘electability,’” Lau wrote then. “Elections are not won by nominees chosen to appeal to or pacify the other side: elections are won by candidates who inspire their party’s voters to turn out on Election Day and who have an effective organization to drive it home. ... Electability requires boldness.”

The earlier memo highlighted Warren's tactical choices, such as investing early in organizers and integrating its data and tech teams in-house. Both moves have been praised by Democratic activists in early states and some digital organizers. Lau also argued that forgoing closed fundraisers with wealthy people was a strategic advantage since it gave Warren more time to campaign.

The memo, widely seen at the time as spin from a flailing campaign, has largely been validated by Warren's performance since.

Zach Montallero contributed to this report.