Tim Scott’s Super PAC Cancels Fall Ad Campaign: ‘We Aren’t Going to Waste Our Money’

AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin

Trust In the Mission, a political action committee supporting Senator Tim Scott‘s (R-SC) presidential campaign, is canceling its fall ad buys as Scott continues to struggle to gain any traction in the Republican primary field.

“We are doing what would be obvious in the business world but will mystify politicos — we aren’t going to waste our money when the electorate isn’t focused or ready for a Trump alternative,” wrote the organization’s co-chair, Rob Collins, in a memo explaining that it would be cancelling its “Fall media inventory” to donors. “This electorate is locked up and money spent on mass media isn’t going to change minds until we get a lot closer to voting.”

The RealClearPolitics average of GOP primary polls in Iowa indicates that Scott is tied for fourth place in Iowa, in sixth place in New Hampshire, and fourth place in his home state of South Carolina.

Nationally, Scott has the support of just 2% of Republicans, good for seventh place among his fellow candidates.

Despite the retreat from the airwaves and acknowledgement of former President Donald Trump‘s preeminence in the race, Collins suggested that the money the committee saves on ads will instead be spent on grassroots efforts — including events for Scott and its “door-knocking” operation — and rejected the idea that Scott’s fellow South Carolinian, former Gov. Nikki Haley, represented a better alternative for donors.

“No serious person thinks a moderate will win this primary no matter how many elite insiders champion their candidacies,” he argued.

Scott campaign spokesman Matt Gorman, meanwhile, told Politico, “On issues ranging from foreign policy to abortion, he has been the clearest and strongest voice, leading while others have followed.”

Gorman added that Scott’s campaign was “built for the long haul” and was “ready, as ever, to take our message into the early states and beyond.”