Ramaswamy Throws in the Towel on TV Ad Spending in Iowa and New Hampshire

The campaign of Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy has stopped all television ad buys in Iowa and New Hampshire – and has none scheduled between now and the caucus and primary in those states respectively.

Iowa will hold its caucus on Jan. 15, while New Hampshire’s primary is on Jan. 23.

NBC reported the halt in TV spending on Tuesday, citing Ramaswamy’s campaign and data from an ad-tracking company.

“As recently as the first full week of December, the GOP entrepreneur’s campaign spent more than $200,000 on TV ads. Last week, it spent just $6,000 on ads — all of it on TV — figures from the firm AdImpact show,” the report stated.

The campaign said it is reaching out to voters in Iowa and New Hampshire via other means now.

“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 on Vivek’s vision for America, making their plan to caucus and turning them out,” the campaign’s press secretary told NBC News.

“As you know, this isn’t what most campaigns look like. We have intentionally structured this way so that we have the ability to be nimble and hypertargeted in our ad spending,” she said.

Ramaswamy briefly saw a bump in the polls early on in what is his first run for any office. However, that support eroded in correlation with a handful of Republican debates in which he cut a bombastic and condescending figure. Ramaswamy, 38, has also declined to criticize former President Donald Trump, who is the runaway frontrunner for the Republican nomination. Instead, he has emphasized a need for a younger crop of Republican candidates.

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