Hillary Clinton’s campaign is about to make a splash in eight battleground states with an ad buy of more than $7 million. Virginia will see $1.6 million in ads, $1.3 million is going to Ohio, $1 million will go to Iowa, and New Hampshire, Florida, Nevada, North Carolina, and Colorado will all see ad spending in the hundreds of thousands of dollars. While one of the ads running is a negative spot against Donald Trump, voters will also see two positive ads focusing on her commitment to kids (watch them below).
NBC’s First Read asks:
More than anything else, the ad blitz demonstrates Clinton's financial superiority right now. How long will she have the battleground-state airwaves to herself? Remember, the pro-Clinton Super PAC is already on the air in these states. But where's the Trump/GOP cavalry?
Funny you should ask. It seems that Trump is scrambling to do some fundraising, at long last, with fundraisers coming in Georgia, Texas, and North Carolina. But:
Mr. Trump has informed people raising money for his campaign that he is not interested in traveling to states for donor events unless there is a rally scheduled as well, according to the people involved. Those rallies have often garnered Mr. Trump national cable news coverage, the type of news media attention that fueled his primary campaign.
But the result for now has been that Mr. Trump is campaigning in states where he has far less risk of being defeated by Mrs. Clinton than states that are likely to be competitive, like Michigan, Ohio and Wisconsin, Rust Belt states with large numbers of the white working-class voters who have been most receptive to Mr. Trump’s message.
Given Trump’s narcissism, it makes sense that the humiliation of asking for money would have to be offset by an appearance before a large, adoring crowd. It’s just not the way to win a presidential election against a disciplined candidate with lots of cash on hand and ads already going up in must-win states.