Iowa
Vivek Ramaswamy shuts down TV ads ahead of big Iowa causcuses, here’s his reason
A campaign official said on Tuesday that Vivek Ramaswamy, the Indian-American entrepreneur who is running for the Republican Party’s presidential nomination, has cut off his spending on cable TV ads.
The Iowa caucuses, which will start the voting process for the nomination, are only a few weeks away.
Tricia McLaughlin, a spokesperson for the campaign, said that Mr. Ramaswamy’s campaign is not reducing its overall advertising budget, but is switching from conventional TV to other ways of reaching out to voters that have a “higher return on investment.” She said this after NBC News reported that the campaign had stopped its TV ad spending.
Ms. McLaughlin said in a statement that “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.” She added that “we’re just following the data.”
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She also mentioned the enormous amounts of money that have been spent on the presidential campaign so far, saying that “$190 million in traditional advertising has been spent in this race nationally. Polls have barely changed.”
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This is a sudden change of plan for Ramaswamy’s campaign, which has invested millions in ads. The campaign had booked about $1 million worth of TV ads in Iowa last month, which was almost twice as much as what the campaign and a supportive super PAC had spent in the previous month.
Ramaswamy has not been able to gain much traction in Iowa, even with the heavy spending and the frequent campaign events. He told reporters last month that he had spent about $20 million on his campaign until then.
The presidential candidate is still far behind in the state polls, with less than 10 per cent support. His popularity among Republicans nationwide has also been dropping steadily since September, and his unpopularity among all Americans has reached a new high in national polls.
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He has also been promoting right-wing conspiracy theories in his campaign speeches. He has said that the Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the Capitol was an “inside job,” alleged that the 2020 election was rigged by “big tech” and implied that the “great replacement theory” was a Democratic agenda.
Ms. McLaughlin said that the Ramaswamy campaign would still run some ads through online TV services, such as YouTube TV.