A conservative political action committee (PAC) seeking an alternative to former President Donald Trump in 2024 admitted that its attack ads have been “ineffective” in changing Republican primary voters’ minds on certain issues, according to a Thursday memo obtained by The New York Times.
Win It Back PAC, led by Club for Growth President David McIntosh, has spent roughly $6 million on over 40 anti-Trump ads in key early nominating states Iowa and South Carolina, as well as nationwide, according to the memo. The PAC found that its ads weren’t able to change GOP primary voters’ opinion of the former president among certain issues and failed to consolidate support around another Republican candidate.
“All attempts to undermine his conservative credentials on specific issues were ineffective, regardless of the setting (live surveys , online surveys , focus groups , controlled experiments),” McIntosh wrote in the memo. “Even when you show video to Republican primary voters with complete context of President Trump saying something otherwise objectionable to primary voters, they find a way to rationalize and dismiss it.”
The PAC found that the ads that attacked Trump’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, government spending and “failure to build the wall,” as well as his stances on abortion, “woke issues” and gun control were the least harmful, according to the memo.
However, the PAC did find that Trump’s support fell by four points in Iowa where it ran the ads, but grew by 5 points where it didn’t, according to the memo. The PAC also observed that ads which used “non-scripted Republicans” expressing concerns, and those that sought to “disarm the viewer,” were more effective. (RELATED: Second GOP Primary Debate Drew Historically Low Ratings Without Trump)
“The data shows we can and did move the needle,” McIntosh said in a statement provided to the Daily Caller News Foundation.
ORLANDO, FLORIDA – FEBRUARY 28: David McIntosh, Club for Growth, addresses the Conservative Political Action Conference held in the Hyatt Regency. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
The PAC maintains it will continue to create and test ads as the large GOP primary field begins to narrow, according to the memo.
“President Trump will be the nominee and there is nothing that anybody can do to stop that,” Trump campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung told the Daily Caller News Foundation. “It’s time for everyone to rally behind President Trump so he can beat Crooked Joe Biden and retake the White House.”
In Iowa and South Carolina, Trump is ahead by over 30 points, according to the RealClearPolitics (RCP) average based on the most recent polling.
The RCP average for a 2024 national Republican primary, based on polls conducted between Sept. 13 and Sept. 26, indicates Trump is leading the field by over 40 points, followed by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis at 14.4%, former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley at 5.8%, conservative businessman Vivek Ramaswamy at 5.1% and former Vice President Mike Pence at 4.2%. All other GOP hopefuls garnered less than 3% support.
Editor’s Note: This article has been updated to include a statement from David McIntosh and to clarify that the ads didn’t change Republican primary voters minds among certain issues.
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