Welcome to the online version From the political tablenightly newsletter that brings you the latest reporting and analysis from the NBC News Politics team on the campaign trail, the White House and Capitol Hill.
In today’s issue, national political reporter Ben Kamisar breaks down the state of the advertising competition in the presidential campaign. In addition, the campaign embeds Alex Tabet’s reporting from Phoenix about the rare Democratic candidate who leans on border security.
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After the Democrats’ long-standing advantage, Team Trump is starting to close the gap in ad spending on the battlefield
Author: Ben Kamisar
If you live in a swing state and are already sick of seeing presidential campaign ads, buckle up. You’re going to see a lot more, thanks in large part to a big increase in Republican spending.
Democrats have had a huge advantage on television for much of the year, and Donald Trump’s campaign has begun pouring serious money into battleground advertising for the first time since he emerged as the presumptive nominee after largely leaving the onus to outside allied groups.
Between June 3 and July 28, Joe Biden’s Kamala Harris campaign spent nearly $65 million on television, radio and digital ads in six battleground states, according to tracking firm AdImpact: Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. . (That amount does not include spending by its joint fundraising committees.) During the same period, Trump’s campaign spent less than $230,000.
But in the past two weeks, a dramatic shift from Trump’s campaign has helped close the gap. It has spent a total of $13 million in those key states, compared to $16.5 million for the Harris campaign.
The surge from both camps comes after Harris replaced Biden as the Democratic standard-bearer and the Republican National Convention ended. The drop in Democratic spending that led to it was caused by Biden’s campaign falling into turmoil after his poor debate performance.
A similar trend emerges when ad spending by outside groups supporting the campaigns is included, showing a large Democratic weekly advantage that has all but disappeared.
And there’s more to come as groups eye another massive flood of ad spending as both parties seek to define a new Democratic ticket. Additionally, the Trump and Harris campaigns have shown they can raise money to spend across the country in what is expected to be the most expensive presidential race ever.
Democrats argue that the advantage they have built up for months should not be underestimated. And while Harris is now at the top of the ticket, most of the achievements of the Biden-Harris administration and the criticisms of Trump still stand.
But we’ve written before about how Republicans have cut into Democrats’ fundraising advantage, and these ad spending numbers show the fruits of that effort.
Democrat Ruben Gallego is leaning on border security as a battleground in the Senate race
Author: Alex Tabet
PHOENIX – TV ads featuring candidates touring the U.S.-Mexico border have become a staple of Republican campaigns across the country. But this summer, Democratic Rep. Ruben Gallego got in on the action as his party tries to win voters’ trust on the battlefield in Arizona’s Senate race — and beyond.
“Ruben Gallego has stood by me. The only member of Congress who has regularly come to my border,” Santa Cruz County Sheriff David Hathaway said in the ad. “He fights for solutions. Better technology. More workforce.”
It’s far from the only border security ad on Arizona radio. Gallego’s rival, GOP Senate candidate Kari Lake, has beaten him at the border, and in one ad, Gallego tied Biden and Harris to the policies, showing a 2017 clip of Gallego on the House floor referring to “Trump’s stupid, stupid border wall.”
The back-and-forth on the issue reflects the border’s central role in the calculus of many voters, as well as Democrats’ understanding that the public did not see their rhetoric or policies as adequate to deal with the growing number of immigrants in recent years.
Gallego’s early efforts to prove himself to voters on this issue are now reflected in other Democratic campaigns. One of the first TV ads Harris ran after taking office as the party’s presidential nominee focused on border security, though the issue did not appear in more than a year of Biden’s TV ads recorded by the tracking firm AdImpact.
The issue also illustrates Gallego’s efforts to redefine himself — and his opponent’s efforts to highlight his progressive past — as he tries to move from a deep-blue House district to a statewide office in one of the nation’s most tightly divided battlegrounds.
That’s why Gallego struck a different tone, though not from an entirely different perspective, when asked by NBC News if he still thinks Trump’s border wall initiative is “stupid” and “stupid.”
“I think border walls are needed in certain areas. Placing a border wall in unnecessary areas just costs more money and then more labor,” Gallego said, arguing that building a full-scale southern border wall is a performative waste of taxpayer dollars.
Read more about Gallego border station →
🗞️ Today’s top stories
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🗳️ If it’s Tuesday: it is the primary day in Wisconsin, Minnesota, Connecticut and Vermont. Tonight’s contests feature another member of the “squad” on defense and set up matches among a number of competitive November contests. Read more →
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🛡️ Settlement: Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz defended his military record amid Republican attacks at his first solo campaign event in Los Angeles, “I’m damn proud of my service to this country,” he said. Read more →
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🔴 Focus on: Trump’s allies are increasing pressure on the former president to drop his racially-based attacks on Harris and reset the issues on the top of voters’ minds. Read more →
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✍️ From rally visitors to volunteers: The Harris campaign has sought to turn the large crowds at his recent rallies into an army of volunteers. Read more →
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👋 Reaching out: The Harris campaign has also hired Nasrina Bargzie, Harris’ former White House policy adviser, to lead the campaign’s outreach to Muslim and Arab voters. Read more →
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✅ Ballot ticket: Constitutional amendments that would confirm abortion have been officially approved for a vote at Arizona and Missouri . A total of eight states have now put the issue directly before voters this fall.
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🚫 Out of the vote: A judge ruled that Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was ineligible to vote in New York after a lawsuit challenged the candidate’s claim that he lived in the state. Read more →
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👀 Good comments: The United Auto Workers filed federal labor charges against Trump and billionaire Elon Musk for publicly applauding the firing of workers who threatened to strike. Read more →
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💲 Money man: The Washington Post takes a deep look at oil tycoon Harold Hamm, writing that the billionaire “has emerged as a central figure in lobbying the oil industry to fund Trump’s re-election bid.” Read more →
That’s all from the Politics Desk for now. If you have any feedback – like it or not – send us an email at politicsnewsletter@nbcuni.com
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This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
