Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump are churning out new ads during the campaign’s final days that they hope will help determine the outcome of Tuesday’s election even though many voters appear to have made up their minds.
The ads from both Clinton and Trump seek to frame the election as a referendum on their opponent’s candidacy, with some new emphases at this late stage of the campaign.
Trump has debuted several television ads since the start of November, including a pair that attack Clinton and two others that promote the message that there’s still time for voters to choose a new direction for the country.
“Unfit,” attacks Clinton for being “under FBI investigation” because of her hidden emails during her tenure as secretary of state, and ties her to disgraced former Congressman Anthony Weiner. Another ad released this week, titled “Corruption,” strikes a similar tone and targets Clinton’s operation of the Clinton Foundation.
Two other ads from the Trump campaign this week make a much more Trump-centric pitch to voters. “United” argues that “we can change directions” and Trump will make the world respect America. An ad with a similar message, titled “Choice,” focuses on the change that Trump would bring in contrast to Clinton.
Trump is also running radio ads featuring Liberty University president Jerry Falwell Jr. on Christian radio in several states, including Arizona, Wisconsin, and Iowa among others.
The GOP nominee’s campaign announced earlier this week that it would spend millions of dollars to blanket the airwaves with these new TV ads in Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Maine, Michigan, New Mexico, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Virginia, Nevada and New Hampshire. Data obtained by the Washington Examiner shows Trump set to invest $18 million on TV ads during the final week of the campaign.
But the Clinton campaign still maintains a large advantage on advertising spending in the final days of the campaign. The Democratic nominee’s bid is expected to receive a boost from $36 million in the last week, according to data compiled by the Examiner.
And while Trump’s ads appear to deliver a broader message about his plans for the future and his perception of Clinton as corrupt, Clinton’s ads appear to be aimed at specific segments of the voting public. Specifically, she’s targeting key constituencies of President Obama’s winning coalition — Hispanic, women, and African American voters — that she’s looking to mobilize on Tuesday.
Clinton is running new ads nationally and in the battleground states aimed at Hispanic voters in both English and Spanish. The ads are aimed at letting Latino voters know that they “have the power to silence Trump’s ignorance and defend their equality, honor their ancestors, and reaffirm their place in America,” according to her campaign.
The Clinton campaign is also running a series of TV ads featuring Trump’s disparaging remarks about women in Florida, Iowa, Nevada, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Ohio and Pennsylvania during the final week of the campaign.
Her campaign has similarly targeted African American voters in a 60-second radio ad unveiled earlier this week that is also running in a handful of battleground states where minority voters could prove determinative in turning such states blue.
Clinton is spending the weekend traveling to densely populated cities in Pennsylvania, Michigan and Ohio alongside celebrities such as Katy Perry and Jay Z. She will also make a stop this weekend in New Hampshire. On Monday night, Clinton and her husband, former President Bill Clinton, are slated to appear alongside President Obama and first lady Michelle Obama in Philadelphia.
Trump’s travel plans for his campaign’s last days include some overlap with Clinton in battleground states residing in Big 10 country — Ohio and Pennsylvania — but also include stops in New Hampshire and North Carolina. Trump will campaign in Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Nevada and Wisconsin this weekend, too.
For Trump to succeed on Tuesday, he will need to maintain a Republican hold on the states 2012 GOP nominee Mitt Romney won, such as North Carolina, while expanding into bluer states like New Hampshire that Obama painted blue.
With the battle lines clearly drawn for the final days of the 2016 campaign, Trump and Clinton are set to sprint to the finish.
