Boyd to drop $300,000 on statewide TV buy

Republican gubernatorial candidate Randy Boyd speaks during a forum at Belmont University in Nashville, Tennessee, January 23, 2018. (Photo credit: Belmont University)

Randy Boyd is spending $300,000 on a statewide ad buy in support of his Republican bid for governor, the Chattanooga Times Free Press reports.

The campaign confirmed the move to reporter Andy Sher, who spotted the evidence of the buy in Federal Communications Commission filings.

The Boyd campaign has reserved ad time on broadcast and cable stations in the Chattanooga, Tri-Cities, Knoxville, Nashville, and Memphis television markets.

“We’re going up Thursday,” campaign CEO Chip Saltsman told the newspaper. “We’re excited to start the process of introducing introducing Randy through TV and we’ve already spent the last year doing it in person and visiting 95 counties and putting almost 60,000 miles” on the Chattanooga-made Volkswagen Atlas that Boyd bought near the start of his campaign.

Randy Boyd’s campaign CEO Chip Saltsman attends a gubernatorial forum at Belmont University in Nashville, Tennessee, January 23, 2018. (Photo credit: Belmont University)

Rival Republican Bill Lee announced a statewide ad campaign last week, but the newspaper found no FCC filings that the Franklin businessman’s campaign had reserved time in the Chattanooga market.

The other major Republican candidates are former state Sen. Mae Beavers of Mt. Juliet, U.S. Rep. Diane Black of Gallatin and state House Speaker Beth Harwell of Nashville.

Note: The Boyd ad brought this brief press release from the Black campaign:

NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Today, Diane Black for Governor Communications Director Chris Hartline released the following statement on Randy Boyd’s first ad of the 2018 election year:

“It will be interesting to see how Randy Boyd’s TV ads in this election apologize for the fact that he abandoned President Trump in the last election.”