US election: Pro-Trump PAC plans $100 mn ad blitz as Harris gains steam

By Stephanie Lai and Bill Allison
 

A super political action committee backing Republican Donald Trump plans to spend $100 million on advertising between now and Labor Day in seven swing states in what polls show is a newly competitive race against Vice President Kamala Harris.
 

The spending figure marks more than half of the total $198 million the super PAC, Make America Great Again Inc., has raised since 2023, according to the latest Federal Election Commission filings, highlighting how the presidential contest is entering a critical stretch with less than three months left until Election Day.

The group is launching a $70 million ad blitz in four states – Michigan, Wisconsin, Nevada and North Carolina – and expanding existing efforts in the battlegrounds of Pennsylvania, Georgia and Arizona, according to a memo obtained by Bloomberg News. MAGA Inc. had already booked $36.4 million through Labor Day — which falls on Sept. 2 — according to AdImpact.

The expanded ad buy comes as polls show Harris, who clinched the Democratic nomination last week, has erased a polling lead that Trump maintained for much of the summer, when his general election rival was President Joe Biden. 

Harris’ entry has brought a wave of Democratic enthusiasm and seen her campaign take a swing-state blitz last week with Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, her running mate, a bid to seize on the momentum.

By contrast, Trump has largely been off the trail and struggled initially to settle on a strategy to hit back at Harris. Republicans have increasingly sought to cast the Democratic ticket as too liberal for most voters, hammering Harris over the migrant crisis at the US-Mexico border and seeking to paint her as weak on crime.

The memo Monday from MAGA Inc. executive director David Lee and senior adviser Chris Grant insisted “the fundamentals of this race remain unchanged.” The ad spending over the next three weeks aims to “define Kamala Harris as the most radical liberal ever to run for President,” according to the memo.

MAGA Inc. opened July with $114 million cash on hand. Investor Timothy Mellon, who’s donated $75 million, is its biggest financial backer. Preserve America PAC, which is funded primarily by Las Vegas Sands majority shareholder Miriam Adelson, is also spending $20.4 million in the coming weeks.