WASHINGTON (AP) – Donald Trump has given a list of reasons for his second-place finish in the Iowa caucuses. But with voting fast approaching in New Hampshire, data from political advertising tracker Kantar Media reveal another possible explanation: Trump got pummeled on TV.
And while he has been stepping up his ground game, Trump appears to be giving other candidates the opportunity to make the same kind of advertising assault that ramped up in Iowa.
An Associated Press analysis finds that during the period leading up to the Feb. 1 caucus, seven out of every 10 broadcast TV ad spots that mentioned Trump in Iowa either attacked him or portrayed him negatively. In total, Republican candidates and super PACs ran at least 16 different television ads attacking Trump that aired nearly 2,500 times.