The super PAC backing Sen. Tim Scott’s presidential campaign is pulling the TV ad reservations it had made for the fall, the group announced in a memo to donors obtained by NBC News.
“Starting today, we are going to release all of our Fall media inventory,” Trust in the Mission PAC co-chair Rob Collins wrote in the memo. “We will continue to fully fund our grassroots door knocking, conduit fundraising, event hosting, and earned media efforts.”
“We aren’t going to waste our money when the electorate isn’t focused or ready for a Trump alternative,” Collins continued. “We have done the research. We have studied the focus groups. We have been following Tim on the trail. This electorate is locked up and money spent on mass media isn’t going to change minds until we get a lot closer to voting.”
Trust in the Mission PAC has nearly $27.3 million booked in future TV reservations, according to AdImpact, an ad-tracking platform.
The memo is an acknowledgment of a stubborn reality for Republicans hoping to knock off Trump: the former president doesn't appear to be budging. Even though he participated in neither of the primary debates and faces legal trouble in four criminal trials, no other candidate has been able to come near him in polling.
Collins urged donors not to count out Scott, R-S.C., noting that at one time, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis was supposed to be the one to be able to defeat Trump.
"Now those same experts are calling for the field to be cleared for Gov. Haley," he wrote, referring to former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley. "We also reject this advice. ... No serious person thinks a moderate will win this primary no matter how many elite insiders champion their candidacies."
