$300 million worth of ads have hit voters ahead of the first GOP primary contests

Almost $300 million has been spent to try to win the Republican presidential nomination so far, two-thirds of it in the first two nominating states, Iowa and New Hampshire, according to data analyzed by NPR and compiled by the ad-tracking firm AdImpact.

Most of that money is coming from super PACs and outside groups.

Both DeSantis and Trump are focused on ... Haley

Overall, the campaigns and groups supporting them have spent $270 million. They are aiming to win over voters by touting their candidates' strengths, but in these closing days before voting begins, they're also going after the candidates they see as the biggest threat.

And for Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and former President Donald Trump, that's Nikki Haley, the former ambassador to the United Nations under Trump and former South Carolina governor.

"Nikki doesn't respect you," says an announcer in a pro-DeSantis ad, running in Iowa. The ad quotes Haley saying in New Hampshire that New Hampshire "corrects" what Iowa does in GOP primaries. "She thinks New England knows better. ... Why should Iowans support another fake politician who disrespects them?"

In New Hampshire, Trump is up with an ad attacking Haley on Social Security, and the super PAC supporting him is focusing on immigration.

"Nikki Haley refused to call illegals criminals," the ad's narrator says, adding, "Illegals are criminals. Nikki, that's what illegal means."

For months, it was just Haley and DeSantis and the groups supporting them exchanging blows on the airwaves. But now, Haley seems to be relishing the attention from Trump in a state where she has been gaining on the former president in the polls.

"Why is Donald Trump only attacking Nikki Haley?" says an ad from the super PAC SFA Fund Inc.,