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A super PAC supporting Sen. Tim Scott’s White House bid told donors that it plans to cut fall ad buys, a sign of the stagnation in the 2024 GOP race as Donald Trump maintains a dominant lead less than 100 days before the Iowa caucuses.
Keeping up with politics is easy with The 5-Minute Fix Newsletter, in your inbox weekdays.
In a memo to donors, Rob Collins, co-chair of the Trust in the Mission PAC, wrote: “We aren’t going to waste our money when the electorate isn’t focused or ready for a Trump alternative. We have done the research. We have studied the focus groups. We have been following Tim on the trail. This electorate is locked up and money spent on mass media isn’t going to change minds until we get a lot closer to voting."
Collins added that the super PAC will continue to “fully fund our grassroots door knocking, conduit fundraising, event hosting, and earned media efforts."
The dramatic move to pull back on ad spending is an acknowledgment of the South Carolina Republican’s struggle to build a viable base of support in the race. Scott, the only Black Republican in the Senate, is running on a message of hope and optimism as well as his life story.
But despite his cash advantage over rivals to Trump — entering the race with $22 million from his Senate campaign — and the millions he has spent on ads, the senator has yet to break through.
For months, Trump has remained the dominant polling leader, with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis polling in a distant second. The memo acknowledged that while the super PAC prepared for the field to narrow, that dynamic has not materialized.
Earlier this summer, the super PAC announced that it would reserve $40 million in television and digital ads in Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina.
Scott, who officially launched his campaign in May after forming an exploratory committee, is registering at 3 percent in a Washington Post average of September and October polling. In May 2023, he was averaging at 2 percent. A mid-September CBS News/YouGov poll showed Scott polling at 6 percent in Iowa and 5 percent in New Hampshire, among likely GOP voters.
Scott’s campaign showed an astonishingly high burn rate in the third quarter — spending nearly three times as much as he raised over the past three months. His official campaign and the allied super PAC have been among the biggest spenders in the 2024 race on television ads.
A campaign aide defended the early spending on ads that far surpassed what the campaign was bringing in, as Scott was seeking to establish national name recognition.
6 min
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Comment14
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A super PAC supporting Sen. Tim Scott’s White House bid told donors that it plans to cut fall ad buys, a sign of the stagnation in the 2024 GOP race as Donald Trump maintains a dominant lead less than 100 days before the Iowa caucuses.
Keeping up with politics is easy with The 5-Minute Fix Newsletter, in your inbox weekdays.
In a memo to donors, Rob Collins, co-chair of the Trust in the Mission PAC, wrote: “We aren’t going to waste our money when the electorate isn’t focused or ready for a Trump alternative. We have done the research. We have studied the focus groups. We have been following Tim on the trail. This electorate is locked up and money spent on mass media isn’t going to change minds until we get a lot closer to voting."
Collins added that the super PAC will continue to “fully fund our grassroots door knocking, conduit fundraising, event hosting, and earned media efforts."
The dramatic move to pull back on ad spending is an acknowledgment of the South Carolina Republican’s struggle to build a viable base of support in the race. Scott, the only Black Republican in the Senate, is running on a message of hope and optimism as well as his life story.
But despite his cash advantage over rivals to Trump — entering the race with $22 million from his Senate campaign — and the millions he has spent on ads, the senator has yet to break through.
For months, Trump has remained the dominant polling leader, with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis polling in a distant second. The memo acknowledged that while the super PAC prepared for the field to narrow, that dynamic has not materialized.
Earlier this summer, the super PAC announced that it would reserve $40 million in television and digital ads in Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina.
Scott, who officially launched his campaign in May after forming an exploratory committee, is registering at 3 percent in a Washington Post average of September and October polling. In May 2023, he was averaging at 2 percent. A mid-September CBS News/YouGov poll showed Scott polling at 6 percent in Iowa and 5 percent in New Hampshire, among likely GOP voters.
Scott’s campaign showed an astonishingly high burn rate in the third quarter — spending nearly three times as much as he raised over the past three months. His official campaign and the allied super PAC have been among the biggest spenders in the 2024 race on television ads.
A campaign aide defended the early spending on ads that far surpassed what the campaign was bringing in, as Scott was seeking to establish national name recognition.
