South Carolina 2024 Republican Primary: Donald Trump spends measly $1 MILLION compared to Nikki Haley’s nearly $15 MILLION total in ads

If political advertising were to win the election, Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley would completely crush Donald Trump in South Carolina. But that’s not true.

Haley and supporting groups have outscored the former GOP president nearly 15 to 1 ahead of the first in the Southern primaries on Saturday. They have poured about $15 million into ad buys, while Trump’s campaign and supporting groups have spent a fraction of that, just over $1 million.

But in the days before the primaries, former President Haley led in the polls by double digits. In the USA Today/Suffolk poll of likely Republican primary voters, Trump was at 63 percent, while Haley was at 35 percent in her home state.

On Friday, Haley argued that the purpose of the contest is for it to be “competitive.” She has scoured the state campaigns far more intensely than Trump, while making her closing argument: The United States cannot have more of the same with Presidents Biden and Trump. She has also stepped up her attacks on the former Republican president, and the closing ads promoting Haley reflect that.

In a 30-second Haley campaign spot showing in South Carolina television markets, images of Trump and Biden are shown as a narrator says, “When your country is divided, your president must unite us.” It’s about images of Haley. The narrator continues, “She ran to revive our state, she did it.” It ends with Haley saying she’s running for a “strong” and “proud” America.

The pro-Haley Super PAC SFA Fund Inc has also been running ads in the state using clips from Haley’s recent “state of the race” speech in which she went after Trump and called him “unhinged.”

If South Carolina viewers watched just an hour of primetime television, they were likely to be exposed to a barrage of Haley ads that repeated often.

Trump has aired ads in South Carolina going after Haley over Social Security. It’s the same ad his campaign aired in New Hampshire. The campaign is also airing ads nationally targeting Haley over immigration

Trump held a rally in Rock Hill, SC on the eve of the South Carolina primary, where polls show him leading by double digits

Haley is campaigning in Mount Pleasant, S.C., on Friday. Her closing argument is that she can win the general election and Trump cannot

Although Trump also aired ads in South Carolina ahead of the primaries, the ads, like his campaign appearances in the state, were noticeably less frequent.

His campaign’s ad targeted Haley over entitlement reforms and accused her of wanting to cut Social Security benefits. A clip was used of Haley talking about the need to change the retirement age. The same ad also previously aired in New Hampshire.

Trump also attacked Haley over immigration with an ad that aired nationally. In it, the narrator berates Haley as “too weak to protect America,” while claiming that Trump will.

As Haley has pledged to fight on no matter what happens in the South Carolina primary, she has also made progress on buying ads in future primaries.

Her campaign recently ran an ad in Michigan, which holds its primaries on February 27. In it, Haley appears on camera calling for a ‘new generation’ and a ‘new conservative president’.

On Friday, her campaign also announced a seven-figure ad buy in Super Tuesday states, including ads on cable TV and digital platforms. Voters in sixteen states go to the polls on Super Tuesday, March 5, where 874 delegates are up for grabs.

“As we look at the road ahead, we know this is an uphill battle, we know the road is hard, we know the math is challenging,” Betsy Ankney, Haley’s campaign manager, said in a call in which the future ad buys were announced. with reporters. But she said it’s never just about winning a Republican primary, but about who can beat Democrats in November.