It appears Vivek Ramaswamy may soon be wrapping up his campaign. The tech entrepreneur and avid supporter of Donald Trump who got under the skin of Nikki Haley and Chris Christie has stopped spending money on television ads in New Hampshire in Iowa, a move that is often a precursor of a candidate dropping out before voters hit the polls.
NBC News writes that “as recently as the first full week of December, the GOP entrepreneur’s campaign spent more than $200,000 on TV ads. Last week, it spent just $6,000 on ads — all of it on TV — figures from the firm AdImpact show.
Ramaswamy’s campaign says it is still spending money on ads, just not on TV.
‘We are focused on bringing out the voters we’ve identified — best way to reach them is using addressable advertising, mail, text, live calls and doors to communicate with our voters on Vivek’s vision for America, making their plan to caucus and turning them out,’ Tricia McLaughlin, the campaign’s press secretary told NBC News.
‘As you know, this isn’t what most campaigns look like. We have intentionally structured this way so that we have the ability to be nimble and hypertargeted in our ad spending,’ McLaughlin added.”
Using Twitter, Vivek said that “TV ad spending is idiotic.”
Presidential TV ad spending is idiotic, low-ROI & a trick that political consultants use to bamboozle candidates who suffer from low IQ.
We’re doing it differently. Spending $$ in a way that follows data…apparently a crazy idea in US politics.
Big surprise coming on Jan 15. 🇺🇸 https://t.co/i2X7Q5d2T9
— Vivek Ramaswamy (@VivekGRamaswamy) December 27, 2023
The Washington Post noted, “Trump himself weighed in Tuesday on his social media site, Truth Social. “He will, I am sure, Endorse me,” he said of Ramaswamy. “But Vivek is a good man, and is not done yet!”
Once a little-known entrepreneur, Ramaswamy seized the spotlight at the first GOP debate in August and struck a chord with some in the Republican base. But he also proved polarizing and didn’t translate the interest into sustained momentum in early nominating states such as Iowa and New Hampshire, where Trump’s challengers need to make a splash. Ramaswamy is mired in the single digits in polls, with the long-shot fight to displace Trump increasingly boiling down to former U.N. ambassador Nikki Haley and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.”
As Vivek backs away from promoting himself on television, his rivals have upped the over-the-air ante. A pro-DeSantis group called Good Fight, for example, announced that it was spending more than $1.8 million on media placement promoting the Florida governor as the Iowa caucuses approach.
In most polling, Ramaswamy has plummeted to fourth, polling nationally at below 5 percent, which may make him ineligible to participate in the next GOP debate.
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