President Donald Trump’s massive campaign war chest was supposed to finance an onslaught of attacks that would destroy Joe Biden’s chance of winning in November. But after months of profligate spending, the attacks did little to diminish the Democratic nominee’s standing. Trump’s formidable cash advantage has evaporated. And it is Biden who over the past month has outspent Trump by nearly double, advertising data shows. Coming off a record-shattering $364 million August fundraising haul, Biden is pouring tens of millions of dollars into a torrent of ads airing in battleground states. The aim is to get out his message of competent leadership, while pinning blame on Trump for a lost year, wracked by disease, unrest and economic hardship. Trump’s campaign, meanwhile, has implemented recent belt-tightening measures and went dark on TV multiple times in August to conserve resources, worrying allies that Democrats could drown him out on TV with weeks left in the campaign. On Monday, the Trump campaign canceled at least $2.5 million worth of advertising that was planned for Iowa, Ohio and Nevada, where he campaigned over the weekend, the data shows. Last week he also canceled ads in those states, as well as in Arizona, New Hampshire and Pennsylvania. “It should be an alarm to every Republican donor that they’ve got to dig deep and give more,” said David McIntosh, a former Indiana congressman who leads the conservative Club for Growth, which has come to Trump’s aid by running commercials on his behalf. “Fox News will help carry (Trump’s) message, but the mainstream media won’t. That means he’s got to have enough resources to go over their heads and talk directly with voters.” Advertising is not likely to be a deciding factor in the presidential contest, but it is a powerful tool to influence perceptions. And it has taken on heightened importance this year because the coronavirus has limited direct contact with voters, particularly for Democrats who have eschewed knocking on doors to encourage turnout. That places added value on not only crafting messages that resonate with diverse swaths of the electorate, but also saturating TV and social media with them. Biden is currently running ads aimed at suburbanites, Black voters and is also running Spanish language ads to target Latinos. He’s also ramped up his own attacks on Trump. One recent online series of ads targeting sports fans blamed Trump’s handling of the pandemic for the absence of Big 10 football. The ads show aerial footage of empty football stadiums. As the final notes of the Star Spangle Banner ring out on an electric guitar, a caption flashes across the screen reading: “Trump put America on the sidelines. Let’s get back in the game.” It seems to have gotten Trump’s attention. After its roll-out, Trump tweeted, “I want Big Ten, and all other football, back – NOW” while insisting that “Dems don’t want football back, for political reasons.” Other Biden ads seek to push back on Trump’s false claims that Biden wants to defund the police and that his election would lead to violence in the streets. In fact, Biden has not called for defunding the police, and the ads highlight that the unrest gripping some American cities has happened on Trump’s watch. “We wanted folks to understand that the fact that they can’t go to […]

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