Commentary

Senate Races Heat Up With Cash Infusion

The Democratic and Republican parties are gearing up for political fights beyond the presidential race. With a few months till election day, a number of U.S. Senate races are coming to the fore.

With Donald Trump at the top of the Republican ticket, Democrats hope their candidates can become competitive in states previously beyond their reach.

Added to expected swing states of Florida, New Hampshire, Ohio and Pennsylvania, could be Missouri and North Carolina or even Arizona. Promising Democratic candidates are vying for Senate seats, per Politico’s Morning Score newsletter.

Strategic spending from the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC) will be crucial to winning back the upper house of the U.S. Congress in November.

Spending on down ballot races is expected to skyrocket. The fight for the Senate becomes crucial in the face of two nominees deeply disliked by the opposing parties.

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“Even this early in the game, as far as Senate races go, Pennsylvania Sen. Pat Toomey has raised around $20 million,” Dan Jaffe, EVP of Government Relations for the Association of National Advertisers told Red, White & Blog.

“With the Koch brothers pledging to spend almost $900 million this election,” and their current apprehension to spending on the presidential race, “we can expect the ad squeeze projected for the latter part of this year to be exasperated by down-ballot races,” Jaffe added.

According to Jaffe, marketers need to be keenly aware of the crunch.

Negative spending in down-ballot races from outside groups has also started in earnest. According to the Associated Press, Freedom Partners, the conservative super PAC began the month with $14 million on hand and has already aired ads targeting Democrats Ted Strickland of Ohio and Wisconsin’s Russ Feingold.

Framing the saturation in the ad market will be the Rio Olympics; ad sales have been significantly quicker and larger than for the 2012 London games. NBC has already secured $1 billion in ad spend for the games back at the end of March, four months quicker than in 2012.

Both parties have time to strategically assess the political map to determine where their money will be best spent, while the cash comes pouring in.

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