Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton will have to compete with the summer Olympics for voters' attention, but only one campaign is doing something about it.
The Clinton campaign is planning an $8 million television ad buy targeting coverage of the Rio games, which start on Aug. 5 and run through Aug. 21, NBC News reported.
The buy is expected to play in crucial swing states, including Ohio, Pennsylvania and Florida.
The Trump campaign, for its part, has spent exactly zero dollars on Olympic television advertising, according to a survey released by Deep Root Analytics.
"Good campaigns will have purchased airtime during the women's gymnastics prime time blocks and deliver messages appealing to single and married women," GOP consultant Nathan Wurtzel told the Washington Examiner.
Asked if the Republican Party had any plans to reach voters during the Rio games, a GOP spokeswoman told the Examiner, "We will continue to focus on Hillary Clinton. I would suggest reaching out to the Trump campaign for comment."
Trump's team declined to respond to multiple requests for comment.
The billionaire businessman hasn't purchased any television advertising since May, and his campaign has yet to reserve airtime for the remainder of the summer and fall, according to the Chicago Tribune.
Trump forgoing Olympic advertising marks a hard break from previous elections, including when Republicans spent about as much as their Democratic counterparts on Olympic advertising during the 2012 presidential election.
Considering that the summer games regularly draw huge numbers of Democratic and Republican voters, the decision by the Trump campaign may seem like a confusing one, though he will likely use social media and the earned media he already enjoys to tie into the games.
"Generally, I think the campaigns will try to integrate important Olympic events into their social media messages, particularly if U.S. athletes win a gold in a given event," Kyle Kopko, who teaches political science at Elizabethtown College, told the Examiner.
"The candidates will want to congratulate U.S. participants and try to appear presidential when doing so. I don't think we'll see many (if any) athletes appearing with candidates, but then again this election has been anything but predictable," he added.
Wurtzel concurred elsewhere, saying, "I'm sure any American gold medal winner will be making America great again."
Kopko also suggested the Olympics may prove a "welcome distraction" for GOP leadership, which has scrambled in recent days to address Trump's self-inflicted wounds, including his fight with a Gold Star family of Muslim faith and his refusal to endorse House Speaker Paul Ryan and Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz.
"Donald Trump's comments toward the Khan family and refusal to support John McCain and Paul Ryan in their primaries has only further damaged the candidate in national news coverage," he said. "The Olympics may provide an opportunity to change the news cycle and reset the Trump campaign's message."
St. Xavier University's Kevin Wamsley, who specializes in Olympic politics and history, had similar advice for both campaigns, and suggested it would be beneficial for Clinton and Trump to dial down until after the games.
"The candidates would be wise to take a break — it's been a long haul for them — American viewers may welcome a new distraction," he said.
The Clinton campaign doesn't appear interested in this advice, as it is on track with supporting Super PACs to dedicate a significant amount of cash to reaching Olympic viewers.
Team Clinton and Priorities USA Action, for example, "are set to air a combined $22 million in ads from now through the end of the Olympics," NBC reported, citing data collected by SMG Delta.
Priorities alone is slated to spend approximately $77 million in ads between the last week of August and Election Day.
In total, the Clinton campaign and Priorities "have reserved a combined $98 million through the fall so far," NBC noted.
In contrast, the pro-Trump PAC Rebuilding America Now has set aside only $817,000 through the end of fall.
This is on top of the fact that the Team Clinton aired $68 million worth of ads through last week, while pro-Trump forces, including Rebuilding America Now and the NRA Political Victory Fund, spent approximately $6 million.
The one area where the Clinton and Trump campaigns have common ground is that – excluding ad spending – neither team has announced any sort of Olympic-themed campaign event or speaking engagement.
Nevertheless, don't be surprised if both candidates suddenly insert themselves into the games, whether on social media or at a press conference, in an attempt to grab a piece of the national pride pie, Alberta professor and sport historian Stacy Lorenz told the Examiner.
"If the U.S. team has a successful Olympics, and tops the medal standings — and there is no reason to believe otherwise — then both Clinton and Trump will try to turn that to their advantage, and ride that wave of patriotism," he said.
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This post has been updated.