Hillary Rules the Battleground Airwaves in June

Donald Trump is only now beginning to embrace some sort of fundraising apparatus after getting hammered for the entire month of June by Hillary Clinton in battleground states. The end result for this month is Hillary Clinton has outspent Donald Trump in crucial swing states by $26 million… to $0.

According to NBC News, the numbers aren’t even close:

Hillary Clinton and her allies continue to dominate the presidential battleground-state airwaves, outspending Donald Trump and pro-Trump groups this month, $26 million to $0, according to ad-spending data from SMG Delta.

For the week, it’s $7.5 million to $0 in the eight battlegrounds of Colorado, Florida, Iowa, North Carolina, New Hampshire, Nevada, Ohio and Virginia. And when you add future ad reservations, it’s $140 million to $0.

In these battleground states, the Clinton campaign has spent nearly $9 million in ads this month, while affiliated outside groups like the pro-Clinton Super PAC Priorities USA have chipped in an additional $17 million.

The sole pro-Trump advertiser, Rebuilding America Now, has aired commercials on national cable TV, not in the battlegrounds – at a price tag of $1.2 million so far.

Here’s a chart to illustrate the disparity:

Trump has staked his campaign on his ability to drive the narrative by media appearances, a strategy that clearly worked during the primary cycle. However, we’re just weeks away from each major party crowning a nominee, and so far, the verdict is pointing to a need for the Trump campaign to shift gears and fight the battle differently.

The number of people that will see a TV ad running for days or weeks in a particular market is far, far higher than the amount that may see Trump do a handful of national interviews during the same time period. Sure, Trump can generate controversy and get attention, but he’ll have to keep doing so at a break-neck pace if he’s going to rebut the onslaught from Hillary Clinton.

The big question that keeps getting asked is why the billionaire is unwilling or unable to drop a few hundred million dollars into his own campaign? He may feel, out of principle, that it’s just not necessary and would constitute a waste of his resources when he can garner billions in free media exposure. On the other hand, self-funding his own campaign was a YUGE deal of his during the primary, why the abrupt change in pace?

June can be a treacherous month for campaigns as they transition from the primary to the general. Hillary Clinton was able to make this pivot more smoothly, despite fighting with Bernie along the way. The Trump campaign has been anything but traditional, and has had a bumpy few weeks.