WASHINGTON, Mar 30: US President Joe Biden’s reelection campaign has launched a digital advertisement aimed at supporters of Indian-American Nikki Haley, who dropped out of the race for the Republican presidential nomination, part of a broader effort by Biden’s team to win over Republicans who may be disinclined to vote for Donald Trump.
The Biden campaign, which is spending more than USD 1 million on the ad across digital platforms, will run the spot for three weeks in battleground states, campaign officials said.
It is part of a six-week, USD 30 million ad buy campaign launched after the president’s March 7 State of the Union address.
Senior members of the Biden campaign played the planned ad during a meeting of the National Finance Committee in New York on Friday, NBC News reported.
The Biden campaign later posted a version of it to X. Biden, 81, is a Democrat. He will face Trump, a Republican, in the US presidential election on November 5, 2024.
The ad features clips of 77-year-old Trump denigrating Haley, 52, during campaign rallies and telling reporters that he does not need her supporters to win.
“If you voted for Nikki Haley, Donald Trump doesn’t want your vote,” the ad says. “Save America. Join us.”
Since Haley’s exit, the Biden campaign has regularly made overtures to the supporters and donors of the two-time former governor of South Carolina state, The Washington Post reported.
“Nikki Haley was willing to speak the truth about Trump: about the chaos that always follows him, about his inability to see right from wrong, about his cowering before Vladimir Putin,” Biden said in a statement when Haley ended her campaign. “Donald Trump made it clear he doesn’t want Nikki Haley’s supporters. I want to be clear: There is a place for them in my campaign.”
The new ad will run across digital platforms, including Meta, YouTube, connected TV and online video.
The Biden campaign’s analytics department has used election results in specific states to find likely Haley voters. Using Zip codes where Haley overperformed against Trump relative to her statewide total, the campaign will target voters who are slightly older, college-educated and more suburban, the Post reported. (PTI)