Harris’ new $90 million battleground ads in August seek to sharpen contrast with Trump

WASHINGTON (AP) — By Kamala Harris The presidential campaign is launching a $90 million advertising campaign over the next three weeks to introduce the Democrat to voters and sharpen the contrast with Republican Donald Trump.

The media buy marks his campaign’s largest investment yet in voter messaging just two and a half months before Election Day in November. 50 million dollars worth of ads booked last month, shortly after Harris replaced President Joe Biden at the head of the party’s ticket.

Harris’s campaign is driven by a run fundraising since the change, and is now moving to spend the money in an effort to counter what had been overwhelming spending by Trump and his allies in the days after Biden’s withdrawal.

Harris’ team said the ad campaign will focus on the vice president’s personal narrative, her career as a prosecutor in California, her commitment to taking on powerful interests and a contrast to what she called Trump’s “dangerous and extreme agenda.”

The ad spending will reach seven battleground states and expand Harris’s spending into smaller markets they haven’t yet reached, such as Marquette, Wisconsin, and Erie, Pennsylvania. The campaign said it is targeting its spending toward shows watched by voters it is seeking to motivate to turn out, including “The Bachelorette,” “Big Brother,” “The Daily Show,” “Love & Hip Hop: Atlanta” and “The Simpsons.”

Harris’ campaign said it raised $310 million in July and entered August with $377 million on hand.

Quentin Fulks, the campaign’s senior deputy manager, said the more voters learn about Harris, the more they will understand that she “is the only candidate fit to lead our country for the next four years.”

The campaign hopes the spending will help “break through a crowded media environment early and make the choices and stakes of this election clear to the voters who will decide them,” Fulks said.