Democratic Gov. Maggie Hassan is running in a tight race against Kelly Ayotte. | Getty Clinton super PAC starts Senate advertising

Priorities USA Action, the super PAC backing Hillary Clinton's campaign for the presidency, will soon begin spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on ads attacking vulnerable Republican senators in both New Hampshire and Pennsylvania, exacerbating a GOP spending disadvantage in both swing states.

The group, which has focused until now on attacking Donald Trump, will air ads linking GOP Sens. Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania and Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire to the wildly unpopular Republican presidential nominee within the next week, spokesman Justin Barasky said.


Clinton has built a significant lead in both states, but Toomey and Ayotte continue to run several percentages points ahead of Trump in polls. They are in tight races with their Democratic opponents, former White House staffer Katie McGinty and Democratic Gov. Maggie Hassan, respectively.

McGinty and Hassan's campaigns have both recently started airing ads linking their opponents to Trump, hitting Ayotte for calling Trump a "role model" during a debate and arguing Toomey and Trump share the same position on abortion rights. Ayotte has said she won't vote for Trump, while Toomey has refused to either endorse or disavow the businessman and entertainer.

"Senators Pat Toomey and Kelly Ayotte stood with Donald Trump for months as he mocked the disabled, trafficked in racism & bigotry, and repeatedly launched sexist and misogynistic attacks against women," spokesman Justin Barasky said. "Everything Pat Toomey and Kelly Ayotte does is a political calculation designed to ensure their reelections, not help the people of Pennsylvania or New Hampshire."

While it's not clear exactly how much of Priorities USA's existing buys will go towards attacking Toomey and Ayotte, the group still has $2 million of airtime booked in Philadelphia and $1.6 million in Manchester, N.H. Over the last two weeks of the election, Republicans are already facing a $7.6 million spending gap in Pennsylvania and a $4.5 million spending gap in New Hampshire.

Priorities is still considering whether to air Senate-focused ads using its remaining TV reservations in Nevada and North Carolina.

The move is also a reflection of how Clinton has begun to pull away from Trump in national polls and appears to have a nearly unassailable lead in the electoral college. Priorities also plans on soon airing radio and television ads in Georgia, a traditionally Republican state where polls have shown Clinton within striking distance of Trump.

The New York Times first reported the buy.

