President Trump is the star of a new $800,000 advertising campaign from the super PAC affiliated with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., that goes on the attack against Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va.
The spot from Senate Leadership Fund, to run on broadcast and cable television and on radio and digital platforms in West Virginia, never mentions or displays an image of Manchin’s Republican challenger, state Attorney General Patrick Morrisey. Rather, the 30-second ad features footage of Trump criticizing Manchin’s voting record, and includes visuals of the senator paired with former President Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, the Democratic presidential nominee in 2016.
“Joe endorsed Hillary 100 percent and Joe Manchin voted no on the tax cuts,” Trump says in the spot. “He votes against the things that we want and he votes against the people of West Virginia. He can’t do that.”
Manchin has led Morrisey in recent public opinion polls. But Trump won the state by a wide margin two years ago and remains popular there. Republicans are confident that the challenger can win in November if the campaign is about which of the candidates is more loyal to Trump and more likely to back his agenda in the Senate.
Senate Leadership Fund is likely to run more ads like this in other red-state Senate battlegrounds where the GOP is challenging a Democratic incumbent.
