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WASHINGTON (AP) — Kamala Harris' presidential campaign is launching a $90 million advertising effort over the next three weeks to introduce the Democrat to voters and sharpen the contrast with Republican Donald Trump.
The media buy marks her campaign's largest-yet investment in messaging to voters with just 2 1/2 months until Election Day in November. It comes on the heels of a $50 million worth of ads booked last month shortly after Harris replaced President Joe Biden at the top of the party's ticket.
Harris' campaign is buoyed by a rush of fundraising since the switch, 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 dropped out.
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 standing up to powerful interests, and a contrast with what it termed Trump's “dangerous, extreme agenda.”
The ad buy will reach seven battleground states — Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin — and expand the Harris' team spending to smaller markets they have not yet reached, such as Marquette, Wisconsin and Erie, Pennsylvania. The campaign said it is targeting its spending at programs watched by the voters they are looking to motivate to the polls, 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.
The campaign's principal deputy manager, Quentin Fulks, said the more that voters learn about Harris, the more they will come to understand that she “is the only candidate fit to lead our country over the next four years.”
The campaign intends for the spending to help “break through a crowded media environment early and make clear the choice and stakes of this election for the voters who will decide it,” Fulks said.
The Harris campaign and groups aligned with Democrats have aired nearly $110 million in television and digital ads so far this month, according to data from media tracking firm AdImpact. Trump and Republican-allied groups by comparison have spent nearly $73 million.
The Harris campaign is responsible for $31.3 million of that spending. Trump’s campaign has spent $20.3 million so far.
But Republican allies so far have committed far more money to ads through the end of the month, with $83.6 million planned so far. Harris and her allies have $25.8 million committed. The figures don't include the latest Harris campaign announcement.