Ted Cruz makes the first ad buys of the 2016 presidential campaign
Sen. Ted Cruz will have the first word on the airwaves - his campaign has made a small media buy for television ads that will air over Easter and Passover weekend, CBS News confirmed.
The Texas Republican bought $33,000 worth of advertising time on national and local stages. The ad buy follows his campaign's $4 million fundraising haul during Cruz's first eight days as an official candidate.
The ads will run during a Fox News Channel airing of "Killing Jesus," a cinematic adaptation of the best-selling Bill O'Reilly book by the same name. The film, scheduled to air four times on Fox over the holiday weekend, premiered on National Geographic Channel earlier this week and broke the network's viewership records with a total of 3.7 million people watching.
Cruz is also targeting key early voters with his small advertising buys, purchasing air time in several early-voting states, including Iowa, South Carolina, and New Hampshire. The campaign promotion will run once during local airings of an NBC special, "A.D.: The Bible Continues," which is scheduled for an Easter Sunday showing.
Though it's rare for a candidate to begin running ads this early in the election cycle, Cruz has made outreach to Christian conservatives a top priority. With the Republican's presidential announcement at Jerry Falwell's Liberty University campus, the ad buy further highlights his commitment to wooing the religious right.
Cruz will also be campaigning in South Carolina this Friday and Saturday, his second visit to the first southern primary state.