BISMARCK, N.D. (KFYR) – Political season has arrived in North Dakota and many candidates have entered the race for U.S. Senate, U.S. House and Governor. Although many have been in the race for a longer period of time, only one candidate is advertising.

North Dakota’s political candidates are hitting the campaign trail. However, one thing that’s missing so far is political advertisements. The only major candidate to go full force into TV and online ads has been gubernatorial candidate Lt. Governor Tammy Miller, R-North Dakota.

Miller said prior to jumping into the race, she and her campaign took the time to develop a communications strategy.

“It’s so important because I haven’t run a campaign before. I’m a business leader and political outsider, so it was important to have a strong message so the folks in North Dakota, our voters, can get to know me,” said Miller.

Political analyst Jason Matthews said he thinks the reason Miller is the first candidate to bring ads out is due to the money she has readily available.

“She has the resources to do it, she can self-finance. She’s probably going to follow the Doug Burgum playbook because Burgum had this very approach in 2016: saturation media ads, then followed by direct mail,” said Matthews, an adjunct political science professor at Bismarck State College.

As for what the other candidates’ plans are for advertising, many say they will wait until we get further into election season. Many plan to use the traditional mediums of TV and radio. However, most will reach out to voters through social media.

Although Miller is ahead of the game, some candidates are just not ready for this step and are focused now on physically meeting voters.

“We will go up on TV when we are ready to go up, probably fairly soon, and we will stay up from now until June 11. You have to run a campaign to do this, you have to go out and talk to as many people as you can, and you have to get your message out,” said Rep. Kelly Armstrong, R-North Dakota.

Matthews said it’s critical for candidates to have political advertising at some point during their campaign as it helps with name recognition. He said how candidates get their message out this time will be interesting to see as mediums are changing.

“It’s going to be fascinating to see how this works its way out because people are dropping cable. You’ve got the streaming services now so people have cut the cord. Candidates are now trying to find new ways in which to connect,” said Matthews.

Although Miller has the traditional TV ads out there, she said she plans to do even more as the race continues.

“We have a strategy for the balance of the campaign, but it will also be coupled with a lot of work getting out around the state and talking with voters, listening and learning,” said Miller.

As far as when we might expect to see more political advertising, Matthews said we will start to see them ramp up after March.

FCC public records tell us that gubernatorial candidate Tammy Miller has booked $57,760 in broadcast TV advertising to date.

Matthews said the next major thing to watch for in these races is what point in time the races become personal and negative, but also who takes that first step.

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