The last time someone released a campaign commercial attacking John Kasich was April 2. The last time a major super PAC spent money against Kasich was March 11. Despite Kasich’s reluctance to drop out of the Republican primary, Donald Trump and Ted Cruz apparently don’t feel much of a need to attack Kasich.
Kasich campaign ads often try to make the case that he’s the Republican with the best chance to beat Hillary Clinton, citing general election polls where he beats Clinton but Cruz loses by a few points and Trump loses in a landslide. So far, Republican primary voters have not been moved by that argument.
Here’s a rundown of how super PACs have been spending their money to oppose candidates.
By far, Donald Trump has been the most-attacked candidate this campaign cycle. Since Jan. 31, more than $33 million has been spent against Trump, three times more than anyone else. Even though they’ve stayed in the race more than a month longer than Marco Rubio, Cruz and Kasich have been attacked by half as many dollars as Rubio since Jan. 31.
From April 7 to April 13, the most recent week of available data, super PACs have been about evenly focused on Trump and Cruz.
In terms of negative commercials from campaigns and super PACs, Trump and Cruz are again the biggest focus. Trump has been attacked by three times as many ads as every other candidate. Since Jan. 31, he’s been attacked by more negative ads than every other candidate combined.
Finally, Cruz has caught up with Rubio in the number of negative ads attacking them.
The Democratic side has remained mostly quiet, although Clinton has slowly started to shift toward focusing on the general election. She released two ads between April 7 and 13 attacking Trump in New York. On April 6, the super PAC backing Clinton, Priorities USA Action, spent more than $12,000 against Trump, on top of $66,000 that it had spent a week prior.
The last time Clinton was attacked by a major super PAC was Feb. 11, when Rubio’s super PAC spent about $371,000 against her. There continues to be no super PAC or negative campaign ad action against Bernie Sanders.
Jason Russell is a commentary writer for the Washington Examiner.
