Vivek Ramaswamy: Just a few weeks before the January Iowa caucus and New Hampshire primary, conservative businessman Vivek Ramaswamy’s presidential campaign has decided to discontinue its television advertising.
When confirming the move on Tuesday evening, Ramaswamy claimed that such spending “is idiotic” and that his campaign will be deploying its money differently. This is a departure from his previous campaign promise to advertise for up to $8 million in Iowa and $4 million in New Hampshire.
“Political consultants use presidential TV ad spending as a low-IQ trick and idiotic, low-return practice to confuse and deceive candidates,” Ramaswamy said on X. We uniquely approach things. It seems that following the evidence when allocating funds is a strange notion in US politics.
With a reference to the Iowa caucus date, Ramaswamy continued, “Big surprise coming on Jan 15.”
NBC NEWS: Vivek Ramaswamy’s campaign stops all TV ad spending less than a month before Iowa and New Hampshire
— Election Wizard (@ElectionWiz) December 26, 2023
Data obtained by AdImpact in early December showed that Ramaswamy was only slightly over $100,000 in booked future and current ad spending, well behind his GOP rivals. On December 22, the candidate had $7.9 million in total ad support and future reservations, compared to $45.4 million for former President Donald Trump, $45.7 million for Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, and $50 million for former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley.
According to NBC News, which cited AdImpact’s data, the campaign spent slightly over $200,000 on TV commercials in the first week of December and barely $6,000 in the most recent week. According to the source that broke the story first, Ramaswamy will continue to fund additional non-television advertisements.
“Our focus is on bringing out the voters we’ve identified,” Ramaswamy’s campaign spokeswoman said. “We will communicate with our voters about Vivek’s vision for America, making their plan to caucus and turning them out through addressable advertising, mail, text, live phone calls, and doors.”
“As you are aware, most campaigns don’t look like this. We purposefully designed our organization in this manner to enable us to spend our advertising budget in a hyper-targeted and agile manner.
According to the RealClearPolitics average for a national Republican primary in 2024, which is based on surveys completed between December 4 and December 21, Ramaswamy is in fourth place with just 4% of the vote. Additionally, the candidate is ranked fifth in New Hampshire and fourth in Iowa.
According to his campaign, he would surpass predictions in both of the crucial early states.
Ramaswamy’s campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the Daily Caller News Foundation.
