Image courtesy Republican Voters Against Trump
A group formed by anti-Trump Republicans is spending big in the closing weeks of the election to convince Republicans in the Grand Canyon State to support Vice President Kamala Harris.
Republican Voters Against Trump on Monday announced plans to spend $2.4 million in Arizona — as part of a $15 million blitz in battleground states — to pay for billboards and TV ads featuring first-person testimonials from former Donald Trump supporters who now back Harris, the former president’s Democratic opponent.
The billboards feature local Arizona voters declaring “I’m a former Trump voter. I’m voting for Harris.” The TV ads, meanwhile, are a series of 15- to 30-second testimonials from voters speaking directly to the camera about why they now oppose Trump and support Harris.
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This campaign is the capstone of the 2024 Republican Voters Against Trump campaign, and the final major ad push ahead of the November election.
“Many swing voters are going to be making up their minds in the coming weeks, and it’s critical that we let them know what’s at stake,” said Sarah Longwell, Executive Director of Republican Voters Against Trump. “You can repudiate him without renouncing your deeply held conservative values. We’re here to help establish a permission structure for right-leaning swing voters to do the right thing and vote their conscience.”
Arizona is largely viewed as a toss-up in the presidential race, though recent polls show that Trump has reversed some of the gains that Harris made after she entered the race — replacing President Joe Biden, who ended his candidacy after a disastrous debate performance — in late July. According to the polling average compiled by FiveThirtyEight, which analyzes polls, Trump holds a slim one-percentage-point lead over Harris in Arizona.
For Harris to win in Arizona, and in other battleground states, she must attract support from disaffected Republicans who don’t like Trump. Democrats in the Grand Canyon State did exactly that in 2022, when they won most of the statewide contests, including governor, attorney general, secretary of state and U.S. Senate.
That was also key in 2020, when Biden upset Trump and won Arizona’s 11 electoral votes by only about 11,000 votes.
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