The Donald Trump campaign has canceled millions of dollars in ad buys in critical battleground states, including Iowa, Nevada, and Ohio, while the Joe Biden campaign, after posting historic fundraising results, is expanding its ad buys.
Bloomberg News reports the Trump campaign “is scaling back its television advertising spending and in some cases abandoning it altogether for now in key states, facing a cash crunch brought on by huge investments in staff and operations.”
There are just 50 days left in the campaign, and some states have already begun early voting.
The Biden campaign has outspent the Trump campaign in TV ads by more than four times, $97.7 million to $21.6, over the past month.
“It should be an alarm to every Republican donor that they’ve got to dig deep and give more,” David McIntosh, president of Club for Growth, told the Associated Press, which notes the dark money group has “come to Trump’s aid by running commercials on his behalf.”
“Fox News will help carry (Trump’s) message, but the mainstream media won’t. That means he’s got to have enough resources to go over their heads and talk directly with voters,” McIntosh added.
Trump appears to be holding frequent “news conferences” from the White House, which are more like campaign rally speeches, due to a lack of campaign cash. The campaign is expected to announce its cash on hand soon.