Trump TV ads set to air in key battleground states
By Steven Shepard
08/18/16 11:39 AM EDT
Donald Trump’s campaign began placing its first television advertising of the general election on Thursday: almost two weeks of broadcast ads in four traditional battleground states where Trump currently trails Hillary Clinton.
The ads are set to begin Friday in Florida, North Carolina, Ohio and Pennsylvania. The first broadcast stations in those states began to report late Thursday morning, so the extent of the campaign’s initial financial commitment is unclear.
Early reports included two network affiliates in Orlando, Florida. Trump is set to spend about $150,000 on WFTV-TV, the ABC affiliate there, and $120,000 on WKMG-TV, the CBS affiliate.
The first buys included $65,000 on WHIO-TV, the CBS affiliate in Dayton, Ohio; WNWO-TV, the NBC affiliate in Toledo, Ohio; and WPXI-TV, the NBC affiliate in Pittsburgh.
Trump’s campaign told POLITICO earlier this week the GOP presidential nominee would begin advertising in five states: the four where it began placing Thursday morning, but also Virginia.
Clinton – who, along with a super PAC supporting her candidacy, began advertising in all five of Trump’s target states for two months – currently leads Trump across those states, according to POLITICO’s Battleground States polling average. The Clinton campaign has, at least temporarily, suspended advertising in Virginia as she’s surged ahead there, though Virginia voters are still seeing the campaign’s ads as part of a national buy on NBC’s Olympic programming the past two weeks.
Clinton’s lead over Trump in the average stands at 5.2 points in Florida, 4 points in North Carolina, 2 points in Ohio, 9 points in Pennsylvania and 9.2 points in Virginia.
http://www.politico.com/blogs/swing-states-2016-election/2016/08/trump-tv-ads-florida-north-carolina-ohio-pennsylvania-227155
