New this morning: Joe Biden's campaign is reserving TV time in Texas this fall, another sign the Democratic presidential candidate is taking the historically red state seriously.
While the campaign is not elaborating on the scale of its investment in Texas — a massive, expensive state — it is among 15 states included in a $280 million fall advertising effort that the campaign is announcing today. The sum features $220 million for TV, and a campaign memo says the TV strategy includes "playing offense in more states."
"Not only are we making a larger overall reservation than [President Donald] Trump, we're reserving in more states including GA, TX, and OH because we have multiple paths to 270 [electoral votes] and an increasingly large number of voters who are available to us," the memo says.
It remains to be seen how extensive the advertising will be in Texas. During a conference call previewing the ad strategy Tuesday evening, campaign officials declined to provide a state-by-state breakdown of the spending plan, including specifically for Texas.
Biden has nonetheless vowed to contend the state in November, and his campaign aired its first general-election TV ads here last month. Those ads were part of a four-state buy, the size of which the campaign described as "mid-six figures." On Monday, the campaign announced its first hires for the general election in Texas.
Trump's team has dismissed the idea Texas is in play and expressed doubt that Biden's campaign would seriously invest in the state. Trump's campaign manager, Bill Stepien, taunted Biden's team last month over Texas' battleground potential, saying he welcomes them to pour resources into the pricey Dallas and Houston media markets.
— Patrick Svitek
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