GOP Senate campaign group blasts 'false' New York Times report on ad spending

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The National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) blasted The New York Times Monday in response to an article reporting the group was slashing TV ad buys in three states with crucial Senate races due to possible "fund-raising trouble."

According to The Times' piece, the NRSC canceled roughly $10 million in ad buys across multiple media markets in Arizona, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin due to "a likely sign of financial troubles" stemming from slowing online contributions.

"This is false, as I told Shane," NRSC communications director Chris Hartline tweeted, referencing the article's author, Shane Goldmacher. 

"The NRSC is not cancelling spending. There is money being moved from the I.E. side back to the NRSC side of the wall," he added. "Nothing in this story is accurate. The NRSC has already spent $36 million on TV and has tens of millions more reserved."

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Hartline later added in a separate tweet that the NRSC had raised record amounts under the leadership of Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., the group's chairman, and was set to outspend the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC) by "tens of millions" this campaign cycle.

The Times' piece quoted Hartline as saying that, "Nothing has changed about our commitment to winning in all of our target states," but made no mention of what Hartline claimed he also said about the organization shifting money from independent expenditures, money that cannot be coordinated with a campaign or candidate, back to the NRSC for spending elsewhere.

Fox News Digital reached out to the DSCC for comment and received a statement from spokesperson David Bergstein saying his group would be taking "nothing for granted."

"While Rick Scott's failed leadership of the NRSC continues to be one of Senate Democrats' greatest assets, we know [Senate Minority Leader Mitch] McConnell's Super PAC will have significant resources in the weeks ahead and we are continuing to take nothing for granted in each of our battleground races," he said.

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The New York Times building on 8th Avenue in New York City. (DON EMMERT/AFP via Getty Images)

The three states mentioned in The Times' report are expected to be some of the toughest battlegrounds in November, with three close Senate races set to be determined there.

In Arizona, Blake Masters, a Republican, is in a tough race with incumbent Democrat Sen. Mark Kelly, while in Pennsylvania, Republican nominee Dr. Mehmet Oz is facing the state's current Democrat Lt. Gov. John Fetterman. In Wisconsin, incumbent Republican Sen. Ron Johnson is in a close fight with the Democrat nominee, Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes.

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The Senate is currently split 50-50 between Republicans and Democrats.