If political advertising won elections, Republican presidential hopeful Nikki Haley would be completely crushing it in South Carolina against Donald Trump. But it doesn’t.
Haley and supporting groups have outspent the former GOP president nearly 15-to-1 ahead of the first in the south primary contest on Saturday. They have put about $15 million into ad buys while Trump’s campaign and supporting groups have spent a fraction of that at just over $1 million.
But in the days before the primary, the former president was leading Haley in polling by double-digits. The USA Today/Suffolk poll of likely Republican primary voters had Trump at 63 percent while Haley was at 35 percent in her home state.
On Friday, Haley argued the goal in the contest is for it to be ‘competitive.’ She has been crisscrossing the state campaigning much more intensely than Trump while making her closing argument: the United States cannot have more of the same with President Biden and Trump. She has also sharpened her attacks on the former Republican president, and the closing ads promoting Haley reflect that.
In a 30-second Haley campaign spot playing across South Carolina television markets, images of Trump and Biden are shown as a narrator says ‘when your country is divided, your president must unite us.’ It cuts to images of Haley. The narrator continues ‘she ran to revive our state, she got it done.’ It ends with Haley saying she’s running for a ‘strong’ and ‘proud’ America.
The pro-Haley Super PAC SFA Fund Inc has also been running ads in the state using clips from Haley’s recent ‘state of the race’ speech in which she went after Trump calling him ‘unhinged.’
Watching just an hour of primetime television in South Carolina, viewers were likely to be subjected to a barrage of Haley ads that often repeated.
Haley’s closing message in her South Carolina campaign ad is how she’s running for a ‘strong’ and ‘proud’ America. The Pro-Haley Super PAC SFA Fund Inc. has also been running ads that use clips from her ‘state of the race’ speech going after Trump as ‘unstable’ and ‘unhinged’
Trump has been airing ads in South Carolina that go after Haley over Social Security. It is the same ad his campaign aired in New Hampshire. The campaign is also airing ads nationally that hit Haley over immigration
Trump held a rally in Rock Hill, SC on the eve of the South Carolina primary where polls have him leading by double-digits
Haley campaigning in Mount Pleasant, SC on Friday. Her closing argument is she can win the general election and Trump can’t
While Trump was also airing ads in South Carolina ahead of the primary, like his campaign appearances in the state, the ads were noticeably less frequent.
His campaign’s ad took aim at Haley over entitlement reforms, accusing her of wanting to cut Social Security. It used a clip of Haley talking about the need to change the retirement age. The same ad also previously aired in New Hampshire.
Trump has also been hitting Haley over immigration with an ad that is airing nationally. In it the narrator slams Haley as ‘too weak to protect America’ while claiming Trump will.
As Haley has vowed to fight on no matter what happens in the South Carolina primary, she has also moved forward with ad buys in future primary contests.
Her campaign recently went up with an ad in Michigan which holds its primary on February 27. In it, Haley appears on camera calling for a ‘new generation’ and a ‘new conservative president.’
On Friday, her campaign also announced a seven-figure ad buy across Super Tuesday states including ads on cable television and digital platforms. Voters in sixteen states head to the polls on Super Tuesday, March 5 when 874 delegates are up for grabs.
‘As we look to the path ahead we know that this is an uphill battle, we know that the road is difficult, we know that the math is challenging,’ said Betsy Ankney, Haley’s campaign manager, in a call announcing the future ad buys with reporters. But she said it has never just been about winning a Republican primary but about who can defeat Democrats in November.