Sen. Portman plans $15 million in ad buys in Ohio
In the first big ante of the season, GOP Sen. Rob Portman’s campaign announced Thursday it had reserved $14 million worth of TV ad time to push his re-election bid in Ohio in a race that could help determine which party controls the Senate. The campaign will spend another $1 million on YouTube ads.
The move makes Portman the first Senate candidate in the country to reserve airtime through Election Day, a clear signal that he is anticipating a brutal race. Portman faces former Democratic governor Ted Strickland in a race that polls show is a virtual tie.
Given Ohio’s status as a pivotal battleground state, Portman is considered one of the most vulnerable Republican incumbents in 2016. The Ohio Republican’s bid for a second term is complicated by Donald Trump’s status as the presumptive Republican presidential nominee.
Trump’s controversial positions and incendiary rhetoric have alienated women, minorities, and moderates — voting blocs that Portman will need to win re-election.
But Strickland has lagged far behind Portman in fundraising, and the Ohio Democrat may have a hard time responding to Portman’s advertising blitz.
Portman raised $2.4 million in the first three months of the year, and he ended March with $13.5 million in the bank. Strickland raised about $1.5 million in that quarter and he closed March with $2.7 million in cash on hand.
“Our paid media campaign will detail what is at stake in the Ohio Senate race: Rob's vision for a brighter future or a return to Ted Strickland's Ohio when the state lost more than 350,000 jobs and ranked 48th in job creation,” Portman’s campaign manager, Corry Bliss, said in a statement. “The days of Ted Strickland hiding from his awful record are over — every Ohio voter will soon learn why Ted is the worst Senate candidate in America.”
Michawn Rich, a spokesman for Portman’s campaign, said this would not be a typical ad blitz. The campaign plans to micro-target voters in different regions across the state, using highly sophisticated data to reach different demographic groups.
David Bergstein, a spokesman for Strickland, said the ad buy wouldn’t erase Portman’s electoral problems. He pointed to a poll released Wednesday by Quinnipiac University that found that 42% of registered Ohio voters said they didn’t know enough about Portman to have an opinion.
“Given the fact that 40 percent of voters can’t pick Senator Portman out of a lineup, it’ll cost him at least $15 million to fix his embarrassing lack of name identification,” Bergstein said. “No amount of money can change the fact that Portman is the ultimate Washington insider with a decades-long career of backing unfair trade deals that have sent hundreds of thousands of good paying jobs overseas to places like China — or that Portman is running alongside Donald Trump, the most toxic presidential nominee in modern history.”
The Buckeye State’s Senate race is among a handful that will determine which party controls the Senate in 2017.