Democratic presidential nominee, U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris takes a selfie with Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) and his wife Gisele Barreto Fetterman after greeting supporters in Johnstown, Cambria County Sept. 13, 2024. (Photo by Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)
As part of its ongoing effort to reach rural and Republican voters, Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign on Tuesday will roll out a series of ads on digital platforms and radio stations in Pennsylvania.
Bob and Kristina Lange of Malvern, Pa., lifelong Republicans who say they’re voting for Kamala Harris in a new ad series from the Harris campaign (screen capture)
The ads will feature testimonials from Bob Lange, 69, a farmer in Malvern, Chester County, and lifelong Republican who voted for former President Donald Trump twice. Lange says he now supports Harris.
There are three versions of the digital ad that will run on YouTube; one includes Lange’s wife Kristina, also a former Trump supporter now planning to vote for Harris. Another digital ad which will target older voters focuses on Medicare.
In the radio spot, Lange says his farm has been in the family for six generations. “We are the backbone of the economy,” he says, adding he thought Trump “was going to help hardworking people” but has since come to believe that “Trump cares for his cronies, the people that are very wealthy” and that Democrats “are the party of common sense.”
The ads will begin airing on more than 130 rural radio stations across Pennsylvania,, including WFGY in Altoona, WYLE in Grove City, and WIFT in DuBois. About a third of the stations are in the news/talk/sports format, with about half in the rock/classic rock/oldies format. Twenty percent are country stations. The Harris campaign said the stations reach more than 500,000 likely voters who don’t live in metro areas around cities or suburban counties.
Harris’ campaign has made a deliberate effort to woo rural voters in Pennsylvania, visiting red counties like Cambria and Luzerne during a swing through the state Sept. 13. The campaign has also opened campaign offices in Lancaster and York, two other counties that regularly vote Republican.