Anti-Trump Republicans to launch swing-state ad buyBy KYLE CHENEY 08/27/16 01:07 PM EDT
Anti-Trump Republicans are preparing to launch a broadcast TV ad in a handful of swing-state suburbs urging Donald Trump to quit the presidential race so the party can replace him with a more electable nominee.
The ad, titled "Keep Your Word," features footage of Trump during the Republican primary in which he suggested he'd drop out if he saw his poll numbers decline.
"Number one, I'm not a masochist, and if I was dropping in the polls where I saw I wasn't going to win, why would I continue?" Trump said in an October NBC interview featured in the ad. A graphic displaying political handicappers' predictions of a landslide Trump loss accompanies his remarks. The ad ends with a plea: "Resign the nomination. Let the RNC replace you so we can beat Hillary."
The 30-second spot is marked for a limited run on broadcast networks in suburban Florida, Virginia, Ohio and Michigan, according to Regina Thomson, a Colorado Republican activist and leader of Free the Delegates, the organization that failed to stop Trump's nomination at last month's national convention. All four states are central to Trump's path to the White House, though he's trailing in most polls of those states.
The ad is backed by a five-figure buy, according to Thomson, but the group is hopeful to eventually expand its run to Fox News Channel. It's initially set to air on broadcast news channels beginning on Tuesday. It's marked for the four states' suburban media markets, according to Free the Delegates, because they're areas that typically lean Republican but appear to be tilting in Hillary Clinton's favor this year.
College Republican groups across the country are grappling over if they should back Donald Trump or decline to endorse their party's nominee.
The spot was produced by NOVA Digital Films, a Virginia-based firm that lists a slew of conservative candidates and organizations as clients, including the Republican Party of Virginia, Americans for Prosperity, the anti-abortion Susan B. Anthony List and former gubernatorial candidate Ken Cuccinelli.
Replacing Trump as the Republican nominee has largely been considered a fever dream of conservative and GOP establishment holdouts bitter over Trump's takeover of the party in the spring. Trump has given no indication that he's considering leaving the race, and party leaders have rallied behind him since he forced his last remaining rivals out of the race in May.
But Trump is also facing significant headwinds on his way to November. Polls show him trailing in virtually every swing state -- sometimes by yawning margins to Clinton. He's also in close contests to win traditionally red states like Arizona and Georgia. But Trump's backers are hopeful that increasing scrutiny of Hillary Clinton's tenure as secretary of state, especially any access she granted to donors to the Clinton Foundation, will help pull him back into contention.
A Trump campaign spokesman was not immediately available for comment.
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http://www.politico.com/story/2016/08/anti-trump-republicans-ad-buy-227469#ixzz4IaJQMuVC
