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The Republican Party’s Senate campaign arm is cutting ad spending in a few key battleground states, according to The New York Times.
According to national political reporter Shane Goldmacher, the National Republican Senatorial Committee “has cut more than $5 million in Pennsylvania, including its reservations in the Philadelphia media market, according to two media-tracking sources.”
This could hurt the GOP’s Senate nominee there, television personality Dr. Mehmet Oz, who was endorsed by former President Donald Trump and trails the Democratic nominee, Lt. Gov. John Fetterman, by almost nine percentage points in the RealClearPolitics average. The winner of the race will succeed Sen. Pat Toomey (R-PA), who is retiring.
More than $2 million in reserved TV advertising was pulled in the Wisconsin cities of Madison and Green Bay, according to Goldmacher. Polling of a race between incumbent Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) and Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes has been scant as a Marquette University poll taken a couple months before the primaries shows Barnes up by two percentage points.
Around $2 million has been cut in post-Sept. 30 reserved TV advertising in the Arizona cities of Phoenix, also the state’s capital, and Tucson, according to Goldmacher. The GOP nominee, venture capitalist Blake Masters, faces incumbent Sen. Mark Kelly (D-AZ). Masters was endorsed by Trump. Polls show Kelly leading.
“Nothing has changed about our commitment to winning in all of our target states,” NRSC communications director Chris Hartline told the Times.
The NRSC has “been spending earlier than ever before to help our candidates get their message out and define the Democrats for their radical agenda. We’ve been creative in how we’re spending our money and will continue to make sure that every dollar spent by the NRSC is done in the most efficient and effective way possible,” said Hartline.
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