Republicans are on the air in South Dakota’s U.S. Senate race with a television spot criticizing independent Larry Pressler and Democrat Rick Weiland.
The ad is the first volley from the Senate Republican campaign arm, the NRSC, which on Friday announced plans to spend $1 million to boost the flagging candidacy of GOP frontrunner Mike Rounds, South Dakota’s former two-term governor.
Rounds has been under relentless attack from Pressler and Weiland. Democratic groups have flooded the state with ads criticizing the Republican after recent polls showed his lead slipping.
Rounds has suffered partly from attacks on the role his gubernatorial administration played in administering a federal visa program.
Some public surveys showed Pressler, a former Republican, in second place behind Rounds. In others, Weiland has been in second.
Pressler and Weiland share the same left-leaning opinions on hot-button issues like Obamacare and the Second Amendment, and the NRSC’s spot attempts to highlight that. The ad is running statewide, on broadcast and cable, the NRSC’s independent expenditure unit confirmed Tuesday afternoon.
“In the race for U.S. Senate, Rick Weiland and Larry Pressler have a lot in common,” the ad’s voice over begins. “Weiland supports Obamacare, just like Pressler. Weiland supports strict new gun laws, just like Pressler.”
Given South Dakota’s Republican bent, GOP strategists have expressed confidence that investing in this race would boost Rounds’ poll numbers and keep their party on track to flip this seat, which is being vacated by Democratic Sen. Tim Johnson. Winning South Dakota is considered crucial to the Republicans’ hopes of winning Senate control.
Rounds also went on television this week with an ad tying Pressler and Weiland together and contrasting Rounds’ conservative record on key issues with that of his two opponents.
