U.S. Chamber of Commerce launches pro-Marshall ad; Hamilton leads in TV spending
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce will launch a $400,000 ad campaign Monday to boost Republican Rep. Roger Marshall in the high stakes race for U.S. Senate.
The ad will play in the Kansas City metro market on broadcast television and digital video platforms, such as Hulu and Roku, said Ashlee Rich Stephenson, the chamber’s national political director.
The pro-Marshall ad buy comes just days after another GOP establishment group, Plains PAC, launched a $3 million ad campaign attacking former Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach, one of Marshall’s top rivals for the GOP nomination in the race to replace retiring Sen. Pat Roberts.
The chamber’s ad centers on Marshall’s service in the U.S. Army Reserves and his role as a co-sponsor of a bill that would establish a new tax credit for veteran-owned businesses.
“A veteran himself, Marshall is working to give greater access to STEM education... so our heroes can build a strong career back home. And Marshall is pushing a bill to provide veterans with more opportunities to start their own businesses,” the ad’s narrator says as footage shows Marshall shaking hands and a photo of him in uniform.
Stephenson said the chamber is not involved in the attack ads against Kobach, but she reiterated the chamber’s stance that Kobach is “a stone cold loser,” who would put the Kansas seat at risk after eight decades of Republican dominance in Senate elections.
Kobach said the “establishment wants a yes-man who will do whatever (Senate Majority Leader Mitch) McConnell tells him to do — not a principled conservative who will hold McConnell’s feet to the fire.”
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The ad will be a boost to Marshall, who is also competing in the primary with businessman Bob Hamilton, a wealthy self-funder whose campaign has spent $1.7 million on broadcast, cable and digital ads as of July 10, according to data from Del Cielo Media, a Virginia-based firm that tracks campaign ad buys.
Marshall has spent roughly $900,000 on advertising, while Democratic state Sen. Barbara Bollier, the fundraising leader, has spent roughly $800,000.
Kobach lags far behind the other campaigns with only about $200,000 in ad spending, while Free Forever PAC, a group that supports Kobach, has spent about $100,000.
The bulk of Hamilton’s ad spending has been concentrated in the Kansas City metro, the same market targeted by the chamber.
Hamilton is well-known in the region as the face and namesake of Bob Hamilton Plumbing, the company he founded and sold in 2017 to Tennessee-based American Residential Services.
He has remained a fixture of the firm’s advertising since the sale and was receiving a salary up to his campaign launch. But Paul Nasrallah, the company’s general manager, told The Star this week that Hamilton will no longer be featured in ads.
“While there has been social media commentary, the business is in no way associated with the campaign, and the candidate is no longer involved in the business,” Nasrallah said in an email.
The firm did not respond to a follow-up question about whether the change was a temporary move, to ensure compliance with federal election rules a month from the primary, or a permanent change.
This story was originally published July 10, 2020 at 1:40 PM with the headline "U.S. Chamber of Commerce launches pro-Marshall ad; Hamilton leads in TV spending."
