(UPDATED BELOW)
I love this guy’s strategy. He’s making a strong statement even with his ad purchases:
POLITICO – Ted Cruz is scheduled to become the first 2016 presidential candidate on the airwaves.
The Texas senator is purchasing a small amount of airtime on television affiliates in the early states of Iowa, South Carolina, New Hampshire, and Nevada on Easter Sunday, according to ad tracking sources. At least some of the advertising will air during a showing of the NBC program “AD: The Bible Continues.”
As of Thursday afternoon, Cruz had booked a total of over $9,000 worth of airtime on affiliates throughout the four states — though the tally was increasing throughout the day as stations reported.
UPDATE: Turns out this isn’t just an early state ad buy, but also a Nationwide ad buy:
Today, the Cruz for President campaign unexpectedly announced a national television buy for Easter weekend. The campaign will run a 30-second spot called ‘Blessing’ that will appear in four early primary states: Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina and Nevada. The spot is also scheduled to air on the Fox News Channel during ‘Killing Jesus,’ a program based upon the best-selling book by television host Bill O’Reilly. The documentary will run on Good Friday and on Easter. The ad is scheduled to appear twice in each airing.
The spot is the first presidential ad buy of the 2016 election cycle, appearing much earlier than campaigns have historically run advertisements. It will run at a time when Cruz is the only announced candidate for president for 2016 and several polls show him “vault[ing] into the top tier of GOP contenders,” as one news outlet put it. Cruz made his announcement on March 23 speaking at Liberty University, the world’s largest Christian university.
‘Killing Jesus’ first ran on the National Geographic cable channel with 3.7 million viewers tuning in. The Fox News airing of ‘Killing Jesus’ is expected to draw a similarly large Christian audience.
As a bonus clip, here is Cruz’s speech from yesterday on the campaign trail in Iowa: