From April 4 through April 11, in terms of super PAC money and negative campaign commercials, Ted Cruz has been attacked more than than Donald Trump.
Super PAC spending on the campaign trail has been slowing down ever since heavy-hitters like Jeb Bush and Marco Rubio dropped out of the race. From April 4 through April 11, about $26,000 was spent against Trump. Since Jan. 31, however, Trump has been attacked by $33 million and managed to weather the attacks. In comparison, $26,000 is a paltry sum.
Trump continues to be attacked by Our Principles PAC, which is unique for not being affiliated with any specific candidate. It exists solely to work against Trump.
Cruz was the only other candidate of either party attacked by super PACs in the past seven days: $29,000 combined from super PACs affiliated with both Hillary Clinton and John Kasich was spent against Cruz. He was largely safe during the month of March, with no super PAC attacks against him between March 3 and March 31. He’s starting to draw more attention, but he hasn’t yet drawn as many attacks as Rubio had before he dropped out. Despite staying in the race longer, Cruz has been attacked by $5.5 million fewer than Marco Rubio was.
Cruz has also taken the most recent heat in terms of negative commercials from Super PACs and from other campaigns. From April 4 through 11, Kasich’s campaign and the super PAC New Day for America (which supports Kasich) each released two ads opposing Cruz. Those ads air in New York, even though Trump leads the polls in New York and Cruz is generally expected to come in third. Only one of those Kasich ads also attacked the GOP front-runner, Donald Trump.
The Clinton campaign also released an anti-Trump ad for the first time since we began tracking on January 31. The ad criticizes Trump on abortion, as well as Mexican and Muslim immigrants. “With so much at stake, she’s the one tough enough to stop Trump,” the narrator says.
Jason Russell is a commentary writer for the Washington Examiner.
