What Can We Learn From Rival Political Ads in Florida?

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It’s that most central and chaotic of swing states, home to the hanging chad, the most recent statewide Senate recount, and already more than $200 million in television and radio political advertising in 2020.

We’re talking, of course, about Florida.

It’s perhaps the most harshly contested state between President Trump and Joseph R. Biden Jr., the Democratic presidential nominee. Recent polls have shown Mr. Biden maintaining a slight lead over Mr. Trump — a Monmouth University poll had Mr. Biden at 50 percent with likely voters to Mr. Trump’s 45 on Tuesday — but the margin of the race in Florida is expected to be razor thin. Mr. Trump carried the state by 113,000 votes in 2016.

Since July, the campaigns have been spending more on Florida’s airwaves than anywhere else in the country. So far, the Trump campaign has spent $57.5 million and the Biden campaign has spent $63.7 million, including reservations through November, according to Advertising Analytics, an ad tracking firm. And Michael R. Bloomberg has pledged to spend $100 million in the state to support Mr. Biden.

But with the campaigns largely grounded by the coronavirus pandemic, Florida television screens are increasingly the primary method, along with digital advertising, by which campaigns are making their arguments to voters, and a look at both campaigns’ recent advertising strategies reveals how they view their current standing in the Sunshine State.