Reports: GOP cuts ad spending in Pennsylvania, as Fetterman launches ad targeting D.C. insiders

A major funding arm for Republican U.S. Senate candidates has slashed ad spending in several battleground states, including Pennsylvania, according to multiple reports.

At the same time, Democratic Senate candidate John Fetterman has released several proposals and launched a related ad blaming inflation on wealthy insiders and lobbyists in Washington, D.C.

The National Republican Senatorial Committee has canceled $13.5 million in planned ad spending since Aug. 1, Politico reported.

More than half of that amount, $7.5 million, was scheduled for Pennsylvania, where GOP Senate candidate Dr. Mehmet Oz has trailed Fetterman in polling and fundraising.

The New York Times first reported on the ad cuts this week, describing the NRSC as slashing “more than $5 million” in Pennsylvania, particularly in the Philadelphia market.

In addition to Pennsylvania, the NRSC has nixed ad spending in Arizona ($3.5 million), Wisconsin ($2.5 million) and Nevada ($1.5 million), reported Politico.

Oz’s campaign directed questions to the NRSC, whose communications director, Chris Hartline, issued a statement Monday pushing back on the Times’ reporting.

“The New York Times story is false,” Hartline said. “The NRSC has been spending earlier than ever before to help our candidates get their message out and define the Democrats for their radical agenda. Nothing has changed about our commitment to winning in all of our target states.”

Hartline’s statement included figures that the NRSC has spent $19.5 million on advertising in this election cycle via its independent expenditure unit (spending not coordinated with campaigns) and more than $17 million through its non-independent expenditure unit.

The statement also insisted that the NRSC has “reserved millions in advertising time and space.”

The Times also reported that the Senate Leadership Fund, a super PAC associated with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, recently said it would steer an additional $9.5 million into ad buys in Pennsylvania and moved up the start date to Aug. 19.

Politico reported that the ad cuts were made because Republican Senate candidates such as Oz, J.D. Vance in Ohio and U.S. Rep. Ted Budd in North Carolina have fallen short of fundraising goals, precipitating reductions in other states to prop up those campaigns.

Fetterman ended June with $5.5 million in available cash after raising $11 million during the second quarter. Oz reported having $1.1 million in cash and he has given his campaign more than $14 million of his own money.

Pennsylvania’s Senate race to replace retiring Republican Pat Toomey is considered critical to Democrats’ chances of holding their tenuous control of the evenly divided chamber or taking a clear majority.

Meanwhile, Fetterman, who returned to the campaign trail last week with a rally in Erie after spending three months away recuperating from a stroke, has released an ad titled ” Blame Washington.”

The campaign said Tuesday that the 30-second ad will run on broadcast TV in the Pittsburgh, Scranton and Johnstown markets, and statewide cable on the Fox News Channel.

Speaking directly to the camera, Fetterman reiterates points he has repeatedly made, including making “more stuff in America,” cutting taxes on working families and banning members of Congress from trading stocks.

Coinciding with the ad, the Fetterman campaign released several policy proposals “to hold Washington accountable” that echo his ad, but which also includes cutting “out of pocket” healthcare expenses and ending “immoral price gouging.”