Hillary Clinton

William769

(55,147 posts) Wed Sep 7, 2016, 05:47 PM Sep 2016

Hillary Clinton Is Burying Donald Trump On TV In Battleground States

Hillary Clinton's campaign has built a massive spending advantage over Donald Trump in critical swing states heading into Election Day — a widening disparity that worries Republicans not just for the presidential race but also in the battle for the Senate.

According to figures provided to NPR by a Republican source tracking ad buys, the GOP presidential nominee is on pace to be heavily outspent in seven presidential and Senate battlegrounds by $127 million to $18 million. Those numbers represent airtime already purchased or reserved from July 26 through Nov. 8. While these numbers could and likely will change, it's an ominous sign for Republicans already growing nervous about the drag Trump could have on down-ballot contests.

Recent polls show Trump trailing in nearly every swing state he needs to get an electoral college majority. And while some GOP Senate incumbents in those states are outperforming their party's nominee, strategists fear that if the gap continues to widen, their candidates will be swamped on air by November, even if they run strong campaigns independent of the top of the ticket. Already aided by a map that favored Democrats this cycle, the minority party only needs to flip five seats, or four if it wins the White House, to win back the majority lost two years ago.

These early ad reservations are critical for any campaign because they can lock in a lower rate by purchasing time in advance; closer to Election Day, the same amount of ad time will cost more. Clinton's campaign has made those investments as any traditional campaign would. But Trump, running a very nontraditional campaign, has not — and if he decides to later on, it would cost him much more to match what Clinton currently has on the airwaves, let alone catch up to the advantage she has built for months.

http://www.npr.org/2016/09/07/492892296/hillary-clinton-is-burying-donald-trump-on-tv-in-battleground-states

Now that's impressive.