Donald Trump’s re-election campaign has pulled television and radio advertising in key midwest states, shifting focus on the Sun Belt swing states in the weeks leading up to the Nov. 3 election.
Trump has curbed a planned $17 million in ad time in Ohio, Iowa and New Hampshire, according to media-tracking company Advertising Analytics, per Newsweek. He also cut $11 million in ad buys in Nevada, Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan.
Funds are reportedly being reallocated to adverts in states Trump needs to secure his second term. His campaign has pumped $18 million into TV and radio ads in Florida, Georgia, Nevada and Arizona, where Biden is leading in the polls.
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The former vice president continues to dominate the airwaves via his $36 million in TV and radio spots, Advertising Analytics revealed.
Trump won Florida in 2016, but he’s trailing Biden by 11 points, according to a Quinnipiac University poll. His campaign remains “extremely confident” that he will win Iowa and Ohio.
“We have been talking directly with voters for years in these states about the success of President Trump’s America First agenda, whether through our top-tier ground game, in-person and online events, or utilizing digital, TV, and radio ads. Unlike Joe Biden, campaign ads aren’t the only way we know how to campaign,” Samantha Zager, deputy national press secretary for the Trump campaign, said in a statement.
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In the weeks leading up to the presidential election, Biden and Democratic groups are expected to reach Americans via $177 million in TV advertising, compared with $92 million in ads Trump and Republican groups have reserved, the report states.
News of Trump’s ad spending coincides with Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, blasting the campaign for taking his words out of context for a new commercial, theGRIO previously reported.
In the ad, titled “Carefully,” Fauci is seen saying, “I can’t imagine that … anybody could be doing more.” The clip, which appears to endorse the president’s response to the coronavirus pandemic, was taken from an interview with Fox News in March.
“In my nearly five decades of public service, I have never publicly endorsed any political candidate. The comments attributed to me without my permission in the GOP campaign ad were taken out of context from a broad statement I made months ago about the efforts of federal public health officials,” Fauci said exclusively in a statement to CNN when asked if he agreed to be featured in the commercial.
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