The Harris campaign’s ad buy dwarfed the $10 million advertising buy announced by Trump’s campaign, to be launched in six battleground states this week…reports Asian Lite News
Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris launched a $50 million advertising blitz on Tuesday, capitalizing on the momentum of a fledgling campaign against Republican rival Donald Trump with a one-minute spot titled “Fearless.”
It was Harris’ first big ad buy since consolidating support for the Democratic nomination after President Joe Biden dropped out of the race on July 21 and endorsed her.
In addition to garnering the backing of big-money donors, Harris has sparked newfound energy among groups such as young voters that Biden had been struggling to win over.
Public opinion polls in the last week have shown Harris, 59, closing the gap with 78-year-old Trump, who still leads in some national surveys.
The ads will be rolled out on television as well as streaming and social channels across election battleground states in the weeks before the Democratic National Convention that starts on Aug. 19.
The first ad in the campaign begins with images of Harris as a little girl and follows her progression to a prosecutor, attorney general and U.S. vice president. “The one thing Kamala Harris has always been: fearless,” the ad says.
Since stepping into her new role, Harris has focused on Trump’s felony convictions in a hush-money trial involving a porn star and the other criminal charges he faces, and portrayed him as responsible for a wave of anti-abortion measures in Republican-led states around the country.
The Harris campaign’s ad buy dwarfed the $10 million advertising buy announced by Trump’s campaign on Monday, to be launched in six battleground states this week as it tries to counter a surge of voter enthusiasm and donations for Harris.
Harris campaign raises $200 million
Earlier, Kamala Harris campaign had raised $200 million. The campaign, which announced its latest fundraising total on Sunday, said the bulk of the donations — 66 per cent — came from first-time contributors in the 2024 election cycle.
Additionally, over 1,70,000 volunteers have also signed up to help the Harris campaign with phone banking, canvassing and other get-out-the-vote efforts.
“The momentum and energy for Vice President Harris is real — and so are the fundamentals of this race: this election will be very close and decided by a small number of voters in just a few states,” Michael Tyler, the campaign’s communications director, wrote in a memo.
Harris quickly coalesced Democratic support after Biden, whose candidature fizzled following his disastrous June 27 debate performance against Trump, exited the race.
Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries, former House Minority Whip Jim Clyburn, former President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton were quick to announce their support.
Rushdie backs Harris
Meanwhile, Mumbai-born author Salman Rushdie has endorsed Kamala Harris’s candidacy for the US presidency and said he believes she is the person who can prevent former president Donald Trump from dragging the country towards authoritarianism.
Rushdie extended his support and endorsement of Harris during a virtual ‘South Asian Men for Harris’ event attended by scores of leading names from the Indian-American community, including prominent lawmakers, authors, policy experts, entrepreneurs and diaspora organisations.
“It’s a critical moment. I’m a boy from Bombay and it’s great to see an Indian woman running for the White House. And my wife is African-American, so we like the fact that a Black and Indian woman is running for the White House,” Rushdie said.
The 77-year-old British-American novelist also noted that ethnicity itself is not enough. “We would not be gathering in this way let’s say for Usha Vance or Nikki Haley,” he said, referring to the Indian-American wife of Republican Vice Presidential nominee J D Vance and the Indian-American former South Carolina governor.
Rushdie emphasised that the momentum is because something “very extraordinary, transformative has happened in American politics” in just under one week.
“The conversation has entirely changed with the arrival of Kamala Harris’s candidacy and it’s changed most joyfully, a way of optimism and positive, forward-thinking,” he said.
Rushdie underscored that the community has to make that work because “we can’t allow the alternative to happen”.
“This hollow man without a single noble quality, trying to drag this country towards authoritarianism. That cannot happen,” he said, referring to 78-year-old Trump, a Republican.
Rushdie voiced his confidence that Harris “is the person who can prevent it. And so I’m right in 1,000 per cent in for her.” He added that star power matters in America and one could argue that Trump’s celebrity status from being on TV for many years helped him get elected to the White House in 2016.
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