President Joe Biden‘s re-election campaign on Wednesday announced $14 million in new spending in battleground states while launching an ad that took aim at the former president Donald Trump on healthcare.
The spending includes seven figures that will be targeted at minority groups through TV, digital and radio ads this month, according to the campaign, which is looking to capitalize on its early fundraising advantage over Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee for presidency. The move also follows a $30 million advertising spree in rival states that began after Biden’s State of the Union address in March.
A key part of the spending push is a new ad that lists Trump’s past efforts to repeal the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare.
“Healthcare should be a basic right,” Biden says in the ad. “Folks, he’s coming for your health care, and we’re not going to let that happen.”
It’s all part of a broader strategy by the Biden camp to capitalize on fundraising and flood battleground states with ads and staffers on the ground. Biden is also campaigning in those core states, while Trump spends most weekdays stuck in a New York City courtroom defending himself in a criminal trial related to hush money payments.
Biden’s reelection effort has focused heavily on protecting abortion rights, and the renewed focus on health care reflects his campaign’s long-held view that Trump’s attacks on the Affordable Care Act are a vulnerability for him, especially since the 2010 law has only grown. popularity. By delving into the broader issue of health care, Biden can also tout related achievements, including capping the price of insulin for seniors at $35 a month.
“When we talk about the stakes, I don’t think they could be higher for Americans who rely on the Affordable Care Act,” Biden campaign spokesman Michael Tyler said on a call with reporters this week. “That is a message that we will be working hard on throughout May and the summer.”
A record 20 million people signed up for health insurance through the Affordable Care Act marketplaces this year, the Biden administration announced in January.
During his administration, Trump tried unsuccessfully to invalidate the ACA, including through the Supreme Court. In November, he declared “Obamacare Sucks!” on social media and said he wanted to replace it. A few months later, in March, he said, “I have no intention of ending the ACA, AS COOKED JOE BUDEN ALWAYS DISINFORMS AND MISINFORM.”
Last month, Trump emphasized that he did not want to repeal the ACA but would instead improve it.
“We’re going to make the ACA much better than it is today and much cheaper for you,” he said in a video.
Less than six months before the election, he has yet to provide details on how he would do that.
Biden and surrogates are aggressively hitting key states this month, according to the campaign, including Biden’s visit to Wisconsin on Wednesday and trips to Georgia and Michigan next week. Biden won all three states in 2020.
The campaign said it has used its extensive fundraising to broaden state operations.
“By the end of this month we will have at least 200 offices and 500 employees,” said Dan Kanninen, Battleground States director for the campaign. “The Trump campaign has virtually no presence in most battleground states. If they decide to do any organizational work at all, they will almost certainly be forced to rely on expensive and last-minute tactics with people who have never set foot in a community they are knocking on.”
Trump’s campaign has disputed the claim that it has no staff in critical states.
“The premise that we have no paid staff in battleground states is flatly false,” Karoline Leavitt, Trump’s national press secretary, said in a statement last month. “We have paid staff and volunteer-driven field programs in every battleground state, and they are expanding daily. We do not announce every organizational move in the media because we are not a losing campaign in need of manufactured momentum like Joe Biden.”
NBC News reported last month that the Trump campaign and the Republican National Committee each had fewer than five staffers in each of the battleground states.
Even with a likely advantage for Biden in personnel, ad spending and fundraising, the presidential race remains neck and neck. In the April NBC News poll, Trump had a slim lead of 2 percentage points — within the margin of error — among registered voters.
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
