MINNEAPOLIS _ Donald Trump's presidential campaign is pulling millions of dollars worth of television advertisements off the air in Minnesota as Democratic challenger Joe Biden maintains a steady lead in the polls in the state.
The Trump campaign, which pledged to spend $14 million on ads in Minnesota earlier in the campaign cycle, has been slashing spending in the state since mid September, according to ad tracking firm Advertising Analytics and filings with the Federal Communications Commission.
The company's tracking also shows the Trump campaign pulling back ad spending in other Midwestern battleground states such as Wisconsin and Michigan while buying more TV time in the crucial swing states of Florida, Arizona and North Carolina.
While the numbers regularly change, Trump has trimmed millions of dollars and hundreds of ads in Minnesota in recent weeks, a pivotal battleground state that he came within 44,000 votes of winning four years ago. The Star Tribune/MPR News/Kare 11 Minnesota Poll in late September showed Biden with a six-point lead over Trump in the state, little change from the same poll in May. Polling averages tracked by the political publication FiveThirtyEight show Biden with a 9.5 percentage point advantage in Minnesota.
Biden's campaign made an initial $3 million investment in advertisements in Minnesota and the spending has remained steady in the final stretch of the campaign.
In a strategy memo, the Biden campaign said it's running "an aggressive paid media program" including ads in Minneapolis, Rochester and Duluth media markets, as well as a Spanish-language and rural radio ad buy and digital targeting.
But Trump is still vowing to win Minnesota after coming so close four years ago, and his campaign has maintained a heavy travel schedule in the state. Trump has been to Minnesota three times in the last three months, including a rally in Duluth last week before he announced his positive COVID-19 diagnosis. Vice President Mike Pence, Ivanka Trump, Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr. have all campaigned for the president in the state.
Trump allies have criticized Biden for visiting the state only once so far for a meeting with union members in Duluth. His wife, Jill Biden, has campaigned in the state twice, including stops in St. Paul on Saturday.
"If overspending on TV ads determined the outcome of elections, Hillary Clinton would be president," said Samantha Zager, the Trump campaign's deputy national press secretary. "It's cute that Joe Biden and his campaign think buying ads in these states makes up for years of Democrats viewing them as flyover country. Biden can try to buy votes, but President Donald Trump and his campaign will continue earning them on the ground and on the airwaves _ and come November, we'll be celebrating victory while Biden binge watches his TV ads from his basement."
Clinton was criticized after the 2016 election for not putting sufficient campaign muscle into Midwestern battleground states like Michigan and Wisconsin, which she narrowly lost. She did not campaign at all in person in Minnesota after winning the Democratic nomination.
In response to Trump's ad cutbacks, Minnesota GOP Party Chair Jennifer Carnahan said the Trump campaign, the Republican National Committee and the Minnesota GOP are still making "historic investments to turn out Trump supporters all across the state to deliver our 10 electoral college votes on November 3rd."
Trump has been running ads in Minnesota that seek to tie Biden to "lawless" protesters, playing off the arson and looting that wracked the Twin Cities after the Minneapolis police killing of George Floyd. The ads promise that Trump will bring "jobs, not mobs." The visuals include a photo of Pence visiting a steel mill in St. Paul a year ago. Biden's spots have focused on the economy and health care, criticizing Trump for his response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Trump advertising cuts come less than one month from Election Day and as Minnesotans are already flocking to vote early and by mail. Recent data from the Minnesota Secretary of State shows more than 1.4 million Minnesotans have already requested absentee ballots and more than 336,000 have already been accepted, a roughly 600% increase from the same period four years ago.
