President Biden’s reelection campaign launched a $14 million ad campaign for May, which will focus on reaching Black, Latino and Asian American Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islanders (AANHPI) voters.
The investments will cover the states the Biden campaign considers essential to victory, including the Midwest’s “Blue Wall,” the Sunbelt and the Southwest. The ads will run during sports programming, during commercials for shows like ABC’s “Abbott Elementary” and on digital platforms.
The campaign plans to have more than 500 staff and 200 offices in the states open by the end of May. It also plans to ramp up surrogate travel and outreach to small businesses during the month.
In announcing the ad launch, the campaign bashed former President Trump’s campaign for its fundraising, which has been lagging the Biden campaign’s $192 million in cash on hand.
“We have historic cash on hand that literally trumps our opponents,” communications director Michael Tyler told reporters, adding that the Trump team has “little time to catch up.”
The campaign noted that Trump is “stuck in New York” or “hiding in Mar-a-Lago” while the Biden team is expanding its reach, and it criticized Trump for being required to be in a New York courtroom during his ongoing hush money trial.
“Trump’s paid media strategy can only be described as anemic and insufficient,” Tyler added.
The $14 million ad buy builds on the $30 million, six-week ad buy that the Biden campaign ran in March.
When asked about Trump’s polling in swing states, with recent surveys showing Trump leading Biden by single-digit advantages in seven battleground states, the campaign reiterated that it doesn’t worry about polls this far from Election Day.
“We’re not going to put stock into any one poll. The bottom line is, there’s no question it’s going to be a close question,” said Quentin Fulks, principal deputy campaign manager.
“We feel very confident about where we are now.”
Sunday marked six months until Election Day.
