Colorado Politics

Democratic group launches ad campaign targeting Trump

WASHINGTON – The largest outside Democratic political group announced it will spend as much as $450,000 per week on ads aimed at weakening President Donald Trump in battleground states ahead of the 2020 election.

Priorities USA Chairman Guy Cecil said Tuesday that the group is primarily targeting voters in Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, New Hampshire, Nevada and Florida. The online ads will focus on Trump’s handling of the economy.

Cecil said the economy may be doing well overall under Trump, but polling shows many Americans feel the prosperity hasn’t trickled down.

He said wages haven’t kept pace, health care and college remain unaffordable and the tax cut championed by Trump and the GOP primarily rewarded the wealthy.

“Most Americans describe the economy as being good. Most Americans also describe their own situation as being tenuous,” Cecil said. “Our job is to make sure we are constantly putting these types of things in context.”

The challenge will be breaking through the noise coming from the White House and Washington to get voters in crucial battlegrounds to focus on economic issues, he said.

It’s unclear how much Priorities will spend overall. During the 2016 election, the group raised about $200 million.

Surveys conducted by the group suggest Trump is vulnerable in many of the same Rust Belt states that sealed his victory in 2016, such as Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, as well as Florida.

Officials of Trump’s re-election campaign have said that they see Colorado as being in play in 2020, but Democrat Hillary Clinton won the state over Trump by 4.9 percentage points in 2016 and state voters overwhelmingly backed Democratic candidates in the 2018 mid-term elections.

President Donald Trump speaks during a Made in America showcase on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, Monday, July 15, 2019. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)
Andrew Harnik
Tags

PREV

PREVIOUS

Poll: More Colorado voters oppose Polis recall; think statehouse Dems went too far

More Colorado voters oppose recalling Gov. Jared Polis than favor such a move, even though the same voters by a narrow margin think Polis and the Democratic-controlled legislature went too far in this year’s session, a new survey conducted by a Republican polling firm shows. The poll, conducted by Louisville-based Magellan Strategies and made available […]

NEXT

NEXT UP

OUT WEST ROUNDUP | Nevada wants seismic risk study at nuclear waste site; Judge proposes $14M to neo-Nazi victim

NEVADA State wants feds to restudy seismic risk at nuke dump site LAS VEGAS – Nevada’s governor and congressional delegation are pointing to recent earthquakes in the California desert and calling for the U.S. Energy Department to look again at seismic risks of burying the nation’s most radioactive nuclear waste at a site in the […]


Welcome Back.

Streak: 9 days i

Stories you've missed since your last login:

Stories you've saved for later:

Recommended stories based on your interests:

Edit my interests