Travis Ridout
Travis Ridout

To fill the holiday vacuum before the next presidential debates in December, campaigns are taking to the airwaves.

Leading U.S. presidential candidates have stepped-up their television advertising blitz to keep a presence in voters’ minds as attention gravitates to the traditional holiday rituals of family, travel, shopping, worship, and football.

As much as they’re competing with each other, candidates will be eagerly vying for people’s time – even if it’s just a fraction of a minute – in order to punch their messaging through during a busy time of the year.

“If you were going to spend money in a campaign advertising, now would be around the time that you would start doing that,” Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., said at a recent campaign stop in Iowa.

Aside from plugging a message to voters, candidates’ ability to place advertisements on the air roughly 70 days before voting begins signals financial prowess.

Travis Ridout, WSU professor of political science and co-director of the Wesleyan Media Project – which tracks campaign advertising – says airing commercials this early is more about continuing a drumbeat of momentum than nailing down actual votes.

“It might be sort of a top-of-the-head thing so when the pollster calls it’s, ‘I remember that one guy on the air.’ It can help you in the polls temporarily, which can help with media and donors. It doesn’t mean they’re going to vote for you in February,” he says.

But it’s no coincidence that the candidates in the best polling positions are also the ones with the capacity to purchase broadcasting shares.

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US News and World Report