The Trump campaign and the Republican National Committee are preparing to spend $55 million on TV advertising in the final two weeks before Election Day, according to senior officials, who struck back at reports they believe they cannot win.
The weekend brought multiple claims that insiders such as campaign manager Bill Stepien are bracing for defeat.
In a call with reporters on Monday, Stepien and other officials said they were confident in victory and were preparing a big new TV advertising buy.
“We have a better candidate. We’re running the better campaign,” said Stepien. “We know the pathway to get us to 270. We are not only in position to win this race, but we know the pathway and the plan to get us there.”
He announced that the RNC was going to be spending advertising money in Arizona, Iowa, Michigan, North Carolina, and Wisconsin, in addition to existing campaign spending in Arizona, Florida, Georgia, the 2nd Congressional District in Maine, Michigan, North Carolina, Nevada, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin.
RNC chairwoman Ronna McDaniel said some of the advertising would be directed at seniors — and in particular at Democratic nominee Joe Biden’s healthcare plans, which carry an estimated price tag of $2.5 trillion.
The announcement follows a string of warnings that the Trump campaign is losing the air war.
The Biden campaign has outraised the Trump campaign in recent months. In September, it announced a record-breaking haul of $383 million, beating August’s historic total of $364.5 million.
Although President Trump began the race with a significant financial advantage, he has lagged behind recently, raising only $247.8 million and $210 million in the past two months.
Combined with poor poll numbers, TV advertising pulled in a number of states, and a candidate who had to vacate the campaign trail because he came down with COVID-19, the result was a string of reports suggesting that even Stepien was privately preparing for defeat.
“It’s not a great feeling when you get the sense the campaign manager doesn’t deep down think we’re going to win,” one campaign source told Axios.
But in the call with reporters, Stepien insisted Trump had multiple paths to collect the 270 electoral college votes and that the new buys meant the campaign’s strong ground game would be complemented by advertising.
“We have sufficient air cover, almost three times as much as 2016,” he said. “The goal of this is to ensure that we’re supporting our ground troops.”
