Republican National Committee head Reince Priebus has declared Donald Trump the "presumptive GOP nominee" and is trying to rally his party around the hashtag #NeverHillary. But the Republicans resolutely opposed to Trump are sticking with #NeverTrump, and they have vowed to keep on keeping on, even though they just lost their last real shot to deprive Trump of the nomination. You can argue that their tactics were ineffective, but nobody can say they didn't try. In total, CNN's Gregory Wallace reports, Republicans ran more than $70 million in broadcast television ads during the campaign, or 64,000 different ads.
In his victory speech on Tuesday night, Trump criticized the steady stream of #NeverTrump ads in Indiana, saying he asked his advisers, "how can anyone endure this?" (Of course, since it was a victory speech, Trump was answering his own question.) The $75.7 million in TV ad spending, as counted by Kantar Media/CMAG, includes all ads run against Trump during the campaign, by all the candidates and their super PACs; Marco Rubio's supporters at Conservative Solutions PAC spent the most, some $19.7 million, followed by pro-Jeb! group Right to Rise, at nearly $10 million.
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