WASHINGTON (AP) – Marco Rubio is taking a page out of Jeb Bush’s playbook- letting his allied super PAC fight the advertising battle ahead of a must-win primary in his home state.
After disappointing primary losses Tuesday, Rubio’s campaign hasn’t spent a single dollar on radio or television advertising in Florida, according to data from Kantar Media’s Campaign Media Analysis Group.
Instead, the Rubio-aligned Conservative Solutions PAC is directing attack ads at billionaire Donald Trump, pumping money into nearly every market in the state and even airing a Spanish-language ad on Rubio’s home turf of Miami in hopes of encouraging a large Latino turnout.
Since Super Tuesday, Conservative Solutions has aired more than 2,300 spots in the Sunshine state and is slated to spend more than $8.7 million on radio and television ads ahead of the state’s March 15 primary. That’s the most the group has spent in any one state since New Hampshire, according to data from Kantar Media’s Campaign Media Analysis Group.
The spending by Conservative Solutions and other outside groups opposing Trump has dwarfed the more than $900,000 Trump has spent on advertising so far.