Politico: “President Donald Trump spent the summer trailing in national polls, losing in swing states and bleeding suburban voters to Joe Biden. His campaign response: doubling down on his base, via his favorite TV channel, Fox News. While the Trump campaign chopped its TV spending throughout the summer, even going dark on the airwaves on multiple occasions, the campaign maintained a heavy presence on Fox. According to Advertising Analytics, an ad-tracking firm, the Trump campaign spent more money on national ads on Fox News in June, July and August ($9.4 million) than it spent on local broadcast TV in Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin ($8.3 million). Trump spent an additional $9.7 million advertising in Pennsylvania, another key state he flipped in 2016, over the same time period.”

“The focus on Fox has alarmed some Republican strategists who think the campaign has missed an opportunity to spread its message to battleground-state swing voters, who are getting a steady dose of Joe Biden ads. Biden spent $35.3 million on TV in Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin over the past three months, per Advertising Analytics, though the Democratic nominee only just started advertising in Minnesota… Overall, Trump’s summer spending on national Fox News ads — more than 10 percent of the campaign’s total TV budget during that time, and more than the rest of its cable advertising combined — illustrated a strategy focused on the Trump base even as the campaign has talked about targeting swing-voting suburbanites, according to interviews with more than a half-dozen advertising experts and Republican strategists. It reflects Trump’s impulse to focus on friendly groups instead of those who may not have supported him in 2016. And the ad strategy raises additional doubts about whether the free-spending Trump campaign has made efficient use of the hundreds of millions of dollars it raised over the past four years.”