Politics
Paul Renner makes closing argument in stretch-run ad buy
The candidate says he has a plan to tackle the high cost of living and corrupt public officials.
Former House Speaker Paul Renner is betting on a new ad to drive Republican voters to support him over better-funded and better-polling rivals in the gubernatorial Primary.
The 30-second “Stop the Games” spot, reported by POLITICO Florida as a seven-figure ad campaign funded by the Friends of Paul Renner political committee, finds the former prosecutor from Northeast Florida walking through a commercial kitchen, talking about how people struggle to “make ends meet.”
He then pivots to addressing the tenor of the campaign thus far.
“Insults and TikTok videos are not leadership,” he says.
Renner says he alone has a plan to eliminate property taxes, lower insurance rates, prosecute public corruption and stop “foreign workers from taking our jobs.”
“Stop the political games. I’ll make Florida affordable again,” he says in his close.
While it’s unclear what plan Renner has to address root causes of unaffordability, what’s clear is this spot is intended to be a silver bullet to redress a profound structural imbalance in the race.
Whereas front-runner Byron Donalds has cleared the nine-figure mark in campaign fundraising after a nearly $11 million haul in the last week of Division of Elections records, Renner raised nearly $40,000 during the week, leaving him roughly $1.5 million to spend as of July 17.
The majority of that money went into this buy, of course.
“As the campaign enters its final push, this ad buy sends a clear message: enough is enough! Floridians have had enough political theater, enough empty stunts and enough excuses while families are stretched thin,” a Renner adviser told POLITICO Florida.
Donalds and Lt. Gov. Jay Collins are also on TV with bigger buys, and Renner has averaged 3% in credible polls of the race going back months, good for a distant fourth place.