A Republican group opposed to former President Trump is launching a “battleground state advertising blitz” Tuesday, spending $11.5 million on billboards and television ads featuring former Trump voters supporting Vice President Kamala Harris.
Campaigning will take place throughout September in Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, Arizona and Nebraska's 2nd Congressional District. Nebraska is one of two states, along with Maine, that divides its electoral votes based on congressional districts, awarding extra votes to the state's overall winner.
The group running the ads, Republican Voters Against Trump, has been active in regularly holding focus groups with Republicans in hopes of finding the most effective messages to steer them away from Trump. In one ad, a group of former Trump voters blames him for the Jan. 6 insurrection, mistreatment of women and calls the military “suckers and losers.”
The signs feature photos of voters with the caption: “I am a former Trump voter. I am voting for Harris.”
Former Trump voters also figured prominently at the Democratic National Convention. Trump has sought to counter that message by highlighting the support of former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii, who left the Democratic Party in 2022, and Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the anti-vaccine activist who suspended his presidential campaign last week to support Trump.
Both campaigns and their allies are expected to spend more than $1 billion each trying to capture the small slice of persuadable voters in what is expected to be a close election.
