Donald Trump currently is not spending a penny on advertising ahead of the Super Tuesday votes where he is favored to win next Tuesday, as groups supporting Ted Cruz gear up to spend more.
Trump has yet to make any advertising buys on local, national, cable, broadcast or radio as of Thursday morning, according to data provided by CMAG/Kantar Media.
Although the billionaire businessman is seen to have the upper hand in those states, he is facing spirited challenges from Cruz and Marco Rubio.
Trump largely resisted investing in advertising until the final weeks before the Iowa caucuses, resting on his command of free media. He did eventually spend almost $10 million in the first four primary states, however.
The Trump campaign did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Advertising is becoming more critical as the race enters a phase with multiple contests on the same date, making it impossible for candidates to invest as much in retail politics as they did in Iowa and New Hampshire. And for now, Cruz and Rubio have the upper hand, according to the data.
Rubio and his allies are spending $3.9 million this week, almost all of which is coming from his super PAC. That group has made a particularly large investment in Texas, where it has invested over $1.2 million.
Cruz super PAC ads
One of Cruz’s super PACs, Keep the Promise I, on Thursday will make an advertising buy in excess of $1 million, the group’s president, Kellyanne Conway, told CNN.
A competing pro-Cruz super PAC is already spending $850,000 to back him in Tennessee, Arkansas, Oklahoma and Georgia.
Those buys, combined with the Cruz campaign’s $2.9 million in purchases, will send the total pro-Cruz tally as of Thursday afternoon to over $5 million this week before Super Tuesday, a date Cruz has called “the single most important day in this presidential election.”
Cruz has begun a new ad in the South replaying some of Trump’s interviews with the conservative base, including ones in which Trump praises abortion rights and Hillary Clinton.
“Arkansas cannot trust Donald Trump,” one spot in the Jonesboro, Arkansas, media market goes. “Don’t give him that chance.”
