Senate Republicans’ campaign arm is making a last-minute shift in its TV advertising strategy in the face of a growing spending disparity with Democrats in key races.
The National Republican Senatorial Committee is canceling all its remaining independent expenditure buys and redirecting that money toward “hybrid” ads, according to two people familiar with the committee’s strategy. Those ads are purchased in conjunction with the candidate’s campaign and at the lower TV ad rate offered to candidates — allowing the NRSC’s money to be spent more efficiently.
But they come with a catch: Hybrid ads must spend as much time addressing a national issue or party as they do the specific Senate or House race. That can make the ads clunky and difficult to design.
The NRSC has leaned heavily on hybrid ads this cycle. Its only remaining independent expenditure ads, set to run in support of Sam Brown in Nevada, will now shift to hybrid ads made jointly with him. The NRSC independent expenditure arm was slated to run $7.4 million in Nevada from Wednesday until Election Day, according to the media tracking firm AdImpact. (An existing run of independent expenditure ads in Michigan ends on Oct. 7 and will not be extended.)