The Republican Senate campaign committee has slashed its reservations for television advertising in three critical states on the battlefield for the fall, a likely sign of financial trouble en route to the peak of the 2022 midterm election season.
The National Republican Senatorial Committee has cut more than $5 million in Pennsylvania, including the Philadelphia media market reservations, according to two media tracking sources.
Reservations in Wisconsin, in the Madison and Green Bay markets, have also been cut, by more than $2 million. And in Arizona, all reservations have been canceled after Sept. 30 in Phoenix and Tucson, the state’s only two major media markets, representing about $2 million more.
So far, about $10 million had been canceled as of Monday afternoon, although more changes to fall reservations were underway. The states where ad reservations have been canceled are home to three of the country’s most competitive Senate games.
In a statement, Chris Hartline, the NRSC’s communications director, said, “Nothing has changed in our commitment to winning in all of our target states.”
Mr. Hartline added that the committee had issued “earlier than ever before to help our candidates get their message out and define Democrats for their radical agenda. We have been creative in the way we spend our money and will continue to ensure that every dollar spent by the NRSC is done in the most efficient and effective way.”
After this article was published online, Mr. Hartline called it “false” on Twitter, saying that “money is being moved from the IP side” – independent spending that cannot be coordinated with campaigns – “back to the NRSC side of the wall .”
He declined to say how much was rebooked.
In Wisconsin, for example, some ads were reserved in Milwaukee, although significantly less than what had been canceled Monday afternoon in Madison and Green Bay.
In Pennsylvania, the Senate Republican super PAC, the Senate Leadership Fund, recently announced it is adding $9.5 million to its fall reservation in the closely watched race between Mehmet Oz, the Republican, and Lt. gov. John Fetterman, the Democrat. The super PAC moved the start of its ad by three weeks, to August 19, a decision that may have eased pressure on the party committee to keep his reservation.
As online fundraising for Republicans has slowed in recent months, affecting both the candidates and party committees, the party has increasingly relied on major super-PACs in the Senate battle. In July, the Senate Republican super-PAC had nearly $40 million more cash on hand than the Democratic Senate super-PAC.
The Senate Party Committee said it had already helped fund $17 million in “coordinated” and “hybrid” advertising with Republican senators and Senate candidates in Ohio, Georgia, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Florida and Wisconsin, and raised $36 million, according to the committee. issued. million on television in general.
The NRSC entered July with $28.5 million in the bank and has millions of dollars set aside in other battlefield states.
A person familiar with the committee’s schedule said some of the money saved by canceling reservations now would eventually be used to rebook ad time in coordination with Senate campaigns, which would help save the dollars. of the group further because candidates are entitled to lower advertising prices. Some of the new reservations were already made on Monday.