The Hillary Clinton campaign and its Democratic allies are unleashing $23 million worth of advertising buys in eight battleground states, NBC's Peter Alexander reported Monday, while Donald Trump's forces "haven't spent a dime" in those places.
Clinton's forces are putting in heavy finances in the key states of Iowa, Colorado, Nevada, Ohio, Virginia, North Carolina, Florida, and New Hampshire. President Obama won all but North Carolina in his 2012 reelection, but all those battleground states were relatively close in the popular vote.
Trump is lagging behind Clinton in the polls, with one Bloomberg survey last week showing him trailing her by 12 points. As Alexander described it, Trump spent the weekend "playing catch-up" in the fundraising battle, but he did it in Texas, a state that hasn't voted for the Democrat in a presidential race since 1976.
"We have to have help," Trump said at a rally. "Otherwise, I'll keep doing what I'm doing. I'll just keep funding my own campaign."
This comes among renewed grumblings to "dump Trump" at the Republican National Convention, which party officials insist will not happen.
Speaker of the House Paul Ryan (R., Wis.), who will chair the convention, did not fully dismiss the notion in an interview that aired Sunday on Meet The Press, saying that it was up to delegates whether they supported Trump or not.