TV Ads Still Win Primaries

Even in the digital era, heavy TV ad spending can decide low‑turnout, older‑skewing primaries: Tom Steyer’s reported $100+ million TV blitz and polling that over 50% of voters rely on TV make a billionaire’s path to the California runoff plausible despite candidate scandals and fractured fields. Endorsements that consolidate partisan voters (e.g., Trump backing Steve Hilton) further magnify money’s leverage by reducing vote splitting. — This reframes where campaigns should allocate resources and how democratic competition is skewed by cash and legacy media, with implications for ballot access, primary reform, and inequality in political influence.