Trump to focus ads on Pennsylvania, Ohio

WASHINGTON – Donald Trump is changing some of his advertising plans.

He’s focusing more than ever on Pennsylvania and Ohio, a sign of the importance his campaign is placing on those two states.

The campaign plans to spend almost $1 million next week in Pennsylvania and $1.2 million there in each of the next three weeks, Kantar Media’s political ad tracker shows. In Ohio, he’ll spend more than $700,000 next week and about $1 million in each of the following three weeks.

At the same time, Trump is decreasing his media plans for Maine and Iowa by a few hundred thousand dollars, according to Kantar Media. On Twitter, campaign spokesman Jason Miller wrote that reductions have occurred in “over-performing markets.” Trump has been ahead in recent Iowa polls.

Also, within the past 24 hours, Trump has slashed his planned advertising for next week from about $7.6 million to $6.1 million, the ad tracker shows. That includes smaller ad buys in Florida and North Carolina, where residents might be preoccupied by Hurricane Matthew’s aftermath.

The data show the campaign has increased its media plans for subsequent weeks by about $1 million, suggesting Trump is shifting resources rather than adding or subtracting commercials. Miller did not respond to questions from The Associated Press.

Two weeks ago, Miller told the AP that the campaign would spend $100 million on TV between that day and Election Day. As of Friday, it had made plans to spend about $45 million in that time frame.

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Keep track on how much Clinton and Trump are spending on television advertising, and where they’re spending it, via AP’s interactive ad tracker. http://elections.ap.org/content/ad-spending

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