Twenty years have passed since a Democratic presidential candidate, then Vice President Al Gore in 2000, won the high-level vote.
But former Vice President Joe Biden hopes to break his party’s losing streak.
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Fox News learned Monday that the alleged Democratic presidential candidate is launching a new advertising blitz this week for voters 65 and older in seven crucial battle states in the general election.
Biden’s campaign says they will spend more than $ 14.5 million to run TV and digital ads in Arizona, Florida, Michigan, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin, all the states that President Trump narrowly won four years ago, making him helped upset Hillary, the 2016 Democratic nominee. Clinton to win the White House. And the Biden campaign says it is expanding ad buying to Nevada, where Clinton overtook Trump four years ago.
The commercials, first shared with Fox News, target the president for his handling of the coronavirus pandemic, which has claimed the lives of nearly 150,000 people in the US since February. New cases of coronavirus have skyrocketed in recent years. two months, forcing many states to pause or reverse the loosening of restrictions designed to slow the spread of the virus.
Those most affected by the coronavirus are older people. “Among adults, the risk of serious disease from COVID-19 increases with age, with older adults at higher risk,” state the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
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In the new television commercial, a Greenfield, Wisconsin resident named Jessica shares a deeply personal story about the April 29 death of her grandmother Susana Martinez, who died of COVID-19.
“The last time I saw my grandmother, we were not allowed to enter the hospital. We asked her if we could video chat with her and everyone could say something. We gather as a family and pray. But the fact that I was alone breaks my heart, “says an emotional Jessica in the ad.
And she accuses that “the president made a big mistake in minimizing this virus.” There was lack of leadership, lack of responsibility and lack of resources. I felt that our elders have not been a priority for this administration, that they don’t matter. And I feel like my grandmother didn’t matter. “
Biden’s campaign says the ad will target daytime television shows that have a high audience among older Americans. And they say a Spanish version of the commercial will run in Arizona and Florida.
In a digital spot that the campaign says will run on YouTube, Facebook and Instagram, the former vice president says, “Our elders, who are being hardest hit. Let’s start by taking care of older parents and loved ones, making their homes more safe but, more importantly, giving them peace of mind, helping them to live independently. Everyone has the right to be treated with dignity. Everyone. “
The $ 14.5 million that Biden’s campaign says he’s spending this week follows the $ 15 million he paid last week in an advertising blitz. Until last week, the Trump campaign had spent far more than Biden’s team on the general election advertising wars on television and digital.
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The new ads follow a television commercial released last week by the Democratic National Committee that also targeted seniors for the coronavirus.
A Fox News poll conducted two weeks ago indicated that the pandemic was the most important problem facing the country at the moment, and that by a 51-34 percent margin, registered voters thought Biden would do a better job than the president who handles the outbreak.
The same survey indicated that the two candidates practically all were linked among older people, with Trump at 47 percent and Biden at 46 percent.
A national ABC News / Washington Post poll conducted around the same time showed the Democratic challenger outperformed the Republican incumbent at the White House 51-46 percent among voters 65 and older.
Both polls represent a change from the 2016 presidential election, when Trump defeated Clinton 52-45 percent among older people, according to exit polls.
The new ad blitz continues the line of attack on the president by Biden, his campaign, and the allied super PACs, who have repeatedly criticized Trump for what they claim was an initial downplaying of the severity of the pandemic, a blunder on the federal response and a push to loosen restrictions prematurely to boost an economy flattened by the outbreak.
Rejecting the criticism, the president, his administration, and his re-election campaign for months have repeatedly touted the federal government’s response to the crisis.
Trump has recently recognized a difficult road ahead.
“Probably, unfortunately, it will get worse before it gets better,” the president said last Tuesday, when he returned to the White House press room to give his first coronavirus press conference since April. And putting aside his long-term reluctance to wear a mask or urge Americans to mask themselves to prevent the spread of the virus, the president emphasized “whether you like the mask or not, they have an impact.”
Fox News’ Allie Raffa contributed to this report.
