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South Carolina Republican Sen. Tim Scott's presidential campaign-in-waiting is placing a massive $6 million TV and radio ad buy in Iowa and New Hampshire, a senior official tell NBC News.
The ads go up Wednesday — two days after his expected Monday announcement and the day he’s set to travel to these two states as an official campaign kick off — and will run on broadcast, cable, and satellite radio thru the first debate. They are also placing another, additional seven-figure digital ad buy, also in Iowa and New Hampshire and running for the same duration.
This is a bigger ad buy than some campaigns had cash on hand as of the latest fundraising reports covering through March. And it’s a sign of what the Scott campaign has already previewed it can do with its more than $20 million war chest.
There’s already been more than $30 million spent on advertising in the presidential race through today, per data from the ad-tracking firm AdImpact, but 2/3 of that has come from two big GOP outside groups ($11.2 million by the pro-Trump MAGA Inc. and $10.8 million from the pro-DeSantis Never Back Down).
The Republican candidate who has spent the most on ads so far is actually Perry Johnson, the businessman running a quixotic campaign that has spent $1.5 million. But of those in the national conversation, it’s Vivek Ramaswamy, who has spent $1.2 million on ads (Trump and his joint fundraising committee have combined to spend about $1.1 million).
More candidates are slated to jump into the fray over the next few months, and it’s very possible we see significant new ad expenditures over that time period too, particularly as candidates try to raise their name ID and fundraise ahead of debates. But the $6 million from Scott is significant, and one clear advantage he has from his years of banking big bucks to his Senate account.
And don’t forget-- while GOP super PACs have been dominating the Republican primary airwaves so far, candidates are allowed to buy ads at much cheaper rates. So Scott’s big spending will go further than comparable spending from outside groups.
