President Joe Biden’s re-election campaign announced on Friday the creation of a $50 million “paid media blitz” in targeted battleground states that will include coverage of major events such as this summer’s Olympic Games and Republican National Convention.
The buying spree coincides with mounting pressure for Biden to bow out of the presidential race due to his mental and physical state which he displayed during a lackluster debate performance against former President Donald Trump. The GOP convention will be held July 15-18 in Milwaukee.
“The Olympics, which are popular among every demographic and increasingly popular among Gen Z, will be a critical moment for Team Biden-Harris to reach a wide swath of the voters this campaign needs to win in November,” the campaign said. “Team Biden-Harris will also leverage other key moments this month, including the Republican National Convention, where Trump and his extremist agenda will be under a national spotlight.”
The campaign said the ads will focus on “a woman’s right to make her own health care decisions, economic relief and opportunities for middle- and working-class families, and the threat Donald Trump poses to our democracy and the rule of law.”
That same month, two liberal groups launched a pro-Biden $50 million ad campaign focused on the former vice president’s “Inflation Limitation Act” in these battleground states. The bill included billions in taxpayer-funded subsidies for green energy companies and was signed into law in August 2022.
Organized by Climate Power and Future Forward USA Action, the campaign attacked oil companies for high gas prices and asserted that the Inflation Reduction Act “cuts pollution,” “lowers healthcare costs” and has spawned “new, good-paying clean energy jobs in solar & wind” all while decreasing dependence on foreign oil.
Biden has retained a significant upper hand in fundraising over Trump, but the former president has raised new money lately since he was acquitted at his New York trial on charges of hush-money payments.
