Posted on August 5, 2020

Arizona, Georgia, and Texas: Joe Biden Goes After Donald Trump Country in Massive Campaign Push

Katelyn Caralle and the Associated Press, Daily Mail, August 5, 2020

Joe Biden’s campaign announced in a memo Wednesday that it has reserved $280 million in a digital and television advertising push that will run through the fall in several battleground states.

This is the largest ad buy ever made by a presidential candidate and nearly twice the amount President Donald Trump’s reelection team has reserved.

The presumed Democratic nominee is putting $220 million toward television airtime and the remaining $60 million toward digital ads.

Trump’s team, on the other hand, has reserved $147 million total, according to a review of Kantar/CMAG data.

Both campaigns, however, can add to or subtract from their reservations at any time.

Soon it will be hard to escape Biden’s messaging as the ads will target voters on TV, radio and the internet in 15 different states, including the traditional swing states of Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin, Iowa and Florida.

They will also run in states that are historically red, including Arizona, Georgia and Texas.

In some of these red and swing states Trump won in 2016, the president is seeing his lead deteriorating over Biden.

Notably, Biden and Trump are neck-and-neck in average polling in Texas, which has not voted for a Democrat in a presidential election since 1976.

His campaign says a ‘significant portion’ of the reservation will be minute-long ads.

It’s part of an effort to solidify what Biden aides say are the multiple paths to an Electoral College victory open to Biden heading into November.

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On the digital side, Biden’s campaign is reserving ads on streaming services like Hulu, YouTube and ESPN, as well as podcasts and mobile and online gaming platforms.

The campaign also plans to launch an ‘unprecedented’ paid media campaign to educate voters on their options for voting, heading into an election year when record numbers of voters are expected to vote via mail due to the coronavirus pandemic.

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In the memo, Biden’s aides also highlighted their advertising efforts aimed at key constituencies, like Black, Latino and Asian American and Pacific Islander voters. They say they’re able to reach about half of all Black households nationwide through their reservations on key Black media properties and note they’re airing ads that feature different Spanish accents targeting diverse Latino populations in key regions nationwide.