Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton Hillary Diane Rodham ClintonButtigieg stands in as Pence for Harris's debate practice Senate GOP sees early Supreme Court vote as political booster shot Poll: 51 percent of voters want to abolish the electoral college MORE won't be on the ballot in Ohio or anywhere else this year, but she will be on the airwaves.

More than 5,000 television advertisements for candidates in the state's GOP primary for governor this year have mentioned the former Democratic nominee, according to a USA Today analysis.

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The race, which is between Lt. Gov. Mary Taylor (R) and Attorney General Mike DeWine (R), has become centered around which candidate can claim truest devotion to conservative values, and the two have tried to link each other to Clinton in the hopes of finding an edge in the bitter primary race.

One ad from Taylor casts DeWine, a former U.S. senator and House member as "D.C. DeWine" and says he "voted with Hillary 962 times in 6 years."

According to USA Today, Clinton now lags behind only former President Obama in terms of advertisement mentions — Obama has been mentioned 18,971 times across all advertisements in this midterm cycle, while Clinton has been mentioned in 12,864 ads.

Obama has an advantage in positive advertising, however: Nearly 4,000 Democratic ads have mentioned the former president so far this cycle, compared to just eight for Clinton. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi Nancy PelosiPelosi: Trump hurrying to fill SCOTUS seat so he can repeal ObamaCare House lawmakers reach deal to avert shutdown Centrist Democrats 'strongly considering' discharge petition on GOP PPP bill MORE (D-Calif.), herself the target of thousands of negative ads, has been featured in 272 Democratic ads.

“Whenever [Clinton] inserts herself into the conversation and continues to make comments that Trump voters are backwards or deplorable, it’s a reminder to folks in red states that supported him that your sitting senator sided with her over the president you voted for,” Katie Martin, a spokeswoman for the National Republican Senatorial Committee, told USA Today.

Democrats fired back, calling the strategy "desperate."

“This election will be a referendum on how Republicans have used their control of Washington to make life more difficult and expensive for working families,” said David Bergstein, a spokesman for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee.