By Canadian Press

Trump to finally begin airing TV ads

Aug 16, 2016 | 8:45 PM

MILWAUKEE — Republican Donald Trump will begin airing the first television ads of his general election campaign, a month after officially becoming his party’s nominee.

Trump spokeswoman Hope Hicks confirms that the campaign will be hitting the airwaves in Florida, Ohio, North Carolina and Pennsylvania — all key states that Trump is hoping to win in November.

Trump’s decision not to run ads was unprecedented in modern campaigns and gave his rival, Hillary Clinton, a gigantic advantage when it came to the airwaves.

As of last week, Clinton’s campaign had spent more than $58 million on general election ads, according to Kantar Media’s political advertising tracker. Trump had yet to spend a dime.

Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort said last week that the campaign had decided to wait until after the Olympics were over to begin airing ads “’cause we don’t need to. We’d rather wait until the summer is coming to an end and the Olympics are over,” he said. “We don’t need to be spending money to be competitive,” he added.

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Clinton, Manafort said, “has spent all of this money and it hasn’t gotten her anything. It’s kept her afloat.”

Jill Colvin, The Associated Press