After a strong fundraising haul in July, the Donald Trump campaign has at long last made its first broadcast TV buy of the general election.
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The Republican Trump, who is trailing Clinton in the polls, chose to focus on national security for his ad, which concludes with “Change that makes America safe again”, a twist on his campaign slogan “Make America safe again”.
Trump’s string of inflammatory statements in the weeks since his nominating convention last month has sent him tumbling in almost every state with a contested Senate race, raising Republican fears that their own demoralized voters will not show up to vote, independents will abandon the entire Republican ticket and energized Democrats will flock to the polls.
Under Clinton’s immigration policy, the ad suggested, “Syrian refugees flood in, illegal immigrants convicted of committing crimes get to stay: collecting social security benefits, skipping the line”.
“It’s more of the same, but worse”, the narrator adds, to the tune of somber music playing in the background.
“Donald Trump’s America is secure”.
The ad, which begins airing this weekend, puts an end to an unprecedented advantage for Hillary Clinton in television spending.
While there is still time for the dynamics of the campaign to shift, what worries Republicans most acutely is Trump’s eroding position in three states that alone could determine control of the Senate: Pennsylvania, New Hampshire and North Carolina. Terrorists and risky criminal kept out. “Our families, safe”, the second-half of the ad says.
Reports emerged Thursday that Trump would begin airing almost $4 million in television spots in four key battleground states – Florida, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and OH – on Friday.
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Clinton, the Democratic nominee, has in contrast run or purchased more than $54 million in battleground states since May 17.
