Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
New ad tells seniors Trump threw them to the COVID-19 wolves
A Democratic Party ad that starts running in South Florida on Friday attempts to undermine President Donald Trump with seniors by highlighting what it deems his mismanagement of the coronavirus pandemic — and the outsize impact on older people.
Senior voters are a critical constituency that helped propel Trump to the White House. If Democrats can erode Trump’s standing among seniors, it could give Joe Biden a victory in Florida, which awards 29 of the 270 electoral votes needed to win the presidency.
The spot, called “Wolves,” is not at all subtle. Highlights: Trump ignored warnings about coronavirus, refused to listen to experts and said it would disappear, the ad says.
”Tens of thousands of older Americans dead,” the narrator states, going on to report that Trump “rushed to re-open American to help his own re-election.”
After an audio clip of Trump intoning “Slow the testing down,” the ad concludes: “Cases exploding. Death toll rising. Hitting older Americans the hardest. Trump. Throwing America to the wolves”
The ad will appear on cable TV in Palm Beach County, home to many seniors the Biden campaign considers persuadable. It will also appear in Arizona and Pennsylvania, which, like Florida, are key battleground states that have higher than average shares of residents 65 and older.
The spot also will run in Texas, which some Democrats think they have a chance at winning this year.
A CBS News Battleground Tracker/YouGov poll released Sunday found Biden 6 points ahead of Trump in Florida, 48% to 42%. One big positive for Trump is that he’s performing well with seniors. The poll found Trump leading Biden among Floridians 65 and older 50% to 42%, an advantage of 8 percentage points.
Support among different age groups is significant because older voters have historically turned out at greater rates than younger voters, making them especially valuable.
Tom Perez, chairman of the Democratic National Committee, said in a statement about the ad that Trump refused to listen when “experts warned that coronavirus would hit older Floridians hard. … Now, approximately 100,000 of our country’s seniors have lost their lives to the coronavirus. Thousands more have been hospitalized, and even those who have avoided the virus have been forced to isolate, preventing them from hugging their children and grandchildren. And it’s all because of Trump’s failure of leadership.”
Democratic National Committee said the ad is part of a six-figure campaign over the course of five weeks, but didn’t disclose more precisely how much would be spent to air the spot in the Palm Beach County market.