$2.1Mpro-Biden ad buy planned for radio stations
Aims to target Black and Caribbean voters
A seven-figure advertising buy promoting Joe Biden is going on Black and Caribbean radio stations and streaming services in Florida.
The $2.1 million effort is part of former New York Mayor Mike Bloomberg’s $100 million of spending aimed at tipping Florida to Biden.
The ad campaign is being put together by two super PACs, BlackPAC and Unite the Country.
“Robust African American and Caribbean support was a major part of our success in Florida in both 2008 and 2012, and we believe this program will help deliver similar margins for Vice President Biden,” Steve Schale said in a statement.
Schale led Barack Obama’s winning Florida campaigns in 2008 and 2012. This year, he’s
executive director of Unite the Country, a pro-Biden super PAC.
Polling shows Black voters overwhelmingly support Biden over President Donald Trump. But the overall race in Florida is close, and to win the state’s 29 electoral voters the Democratic nominee needs heavy turnout among Black voters.
A University of North Florida poll released Tuesday showed Biden 6 percentage points ahead of Trump, 51% to 45%. Among Black voters, Biden was 86 points ahead, 93% to 7%.
On Monday, during a day of campaigning in Miami, one of Biden’s stops was at the Little Haiti Cultural Center.
The announcement from United the Country, BlackPAC and Bloomberg said the radio advertising effort “contrasts the incompetence and corruption of the Trump administration with Joe Biden and Kamala Harris’ proven leadership and commitment to justice.”
The ad tells listeners, in part, that the election “is bigger than politics. It’s about the things that matter: our families, our communities, our nation. Each under threat from a corrupt, racist, lawless president and his party. This administration continues to show its incompetence, ignorance and indifference toward its citizens— froma loss of life during the pandemic to the assault on Black lives. Our nation needs leadership. We need unity. We need a path forward.”
BlackPAC and Unite the Country have been running radio campaigns in other battleground states, Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, since the summer.
The Biden campaign and the Democratic Party also have campaigns aimed at the Caribbean community and at African American voters, including Creole advertising on Haitian stations.