The NRSC’s ads will begin airing Tuesday and stay up through Nov. 3. | AP Photos NRSC buys big in South Dakota

The National Republican Senatorial Committee is in the process of reserving $1 million in South Dakota television time, two sources familiar with the group’s plans tell POLITICO.

The group’s independent expenditure arm snapped up a little over $750,000 in airtime late Friday, but more purchases are on the way.


The independent expenditure matches a million-dollar effort announced by the group’s Democratic counterpart earlier in the week to put the state back on the map.

( Also on POLITICO: DCCC pulls $1M in ads for Romanoff)

Republicans were long favored to pick up the seat of retiring Democratic Sen. Tim Johnson, and it is essential to their hopes of seizing the Senate next month. But the Republican candidate, former Gov. Mike Rounds, has run a lackluster campaign, struggled to raise significant money and been put on defense by a scandal related to a state-run EB-5 visa program.

The NRSC’s ads will begin airing Tuesday and stay up through Nov. 3. The group reserved at least $723,000 in broadcast time spread between Rapid City and Sioux Falls, according to sources tracking the air war. The group also reserved at least $43,000 in cable for next week.

The dynamics of the four-way race mean that Rounds is currently stuck in the 30s in some polls. It’s not clear whether the NRSC’s ads will try to boost Rounds or go after Democrat Rick Weiland and/or independent Larry Pressler, a former Republican senator who voted for President Barack Obama.

The American Chemistry Council, an outside group that mostly backs Republicans, also reserved at least $205,000 on Friday for a TV flight to begin Tuesday in the state.