Vice President Kamala Harris’s 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 2.5 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’s 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’s 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 Trump’s 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’s campaign said it raised $310 million in July and entered August with $377 million on hand.
Here are other updates on the 2024 elections:
Trump Unveils Economic Policy
Trump on Wednesday revealed his economic policy during a campaign rally in Asheville, North Carolina, promising supporters that his administration will “make America affordable again.”
The 45th president said that, under his leadership, the United States had one of the greatest periods of economic growth that any country has ever seen.
“In just four short years under President Trump, we passed the largest tax cuts in history, the largest regulation cuts in history. We unleashed American energy, and real income surged by more than $4,200 in just a short number of months.”
Trump also pledged a “brand new Trump economic boom” if reelected, adding that every American will prosper and every family will thrive.
Google Reports Iranian Group Targeted Biden and Trump Affiliates in Cyberattack
An Iranian group linked to the country’s Revolutionary Guard has tried to infiltrate the personal email accounts of roughly a dozen people linked to President Joe Biden and former President Trump since May, according to Google. The company said the group is still targeting people associated with Biden, Trump, and Vice President Harris. It said the recipients include current and former government officials, as well as presidential campaign affiliates.
The new report from Google’s threat-intelligence arm affirms and expands on a Microsoft report released Friday that revealed the suspected Iranian cyber intrusion in the U.S. election.
Google also said it observed the group gain access to one high-profile political consultant’s personal Gmail account and reported the incident to law enforcement in July. Microsoft’s report shared similar information, noting that the email account of a former senior adviser to a presidential campaign had been compromised.
The new report from Google notes that the same Iranian group targeted both the Biden and Trump campaigns with phishing attacks during the 2020 cycle, as early as June of that year.
The report also notes that the group is active in other cyber espionage activity, including email-phishing campaigns targeted at Israeli diplomats, academics, NGOs, and military affiliates.
Proposal to Allow Local Police to Make Arrests Near Arizona Border With Mexico Will Appear on Ballot
The Arizona Supreme Court has ruled that a proposal that would let local police make arrests near the state’s border with Mexico will appear on the Nov. 5 ballot for voters to decide.
That sets up the biggest push to draw local authorities into immigration enforcement since the state’s landmark 2010 law that required police to question people’s immigration status in certain situations.
The court late Tuesday afternoon rejected a challenge from Latino groups that argued the ballot measure had violated a rule in the state constitution that says legislative proposals must cover a single subject. In an order by Chief Justice Ann A. Scott Timmer, the state’s highest court concluded the measure satisfies the single-subject rule.
If approved by voters, the proposal, known as Proposition 314, would make it a state crime for people to cross the Arizona-Mexico border anywhere except a port of entry, give state and local law enforcement officers the power to arrest violators and let state judges order people to return to their home countries.
It also would make it a felony punishable by up to 10 years in prison for selling fentanyl that leads to a person’s death and require some government agencies to use a federal database to verify a noncitizen’s eligibility for benefits. The proposal will go before voters in a state expected to play a crucial role in determining which party controls the White House and the U.S. Senate.
Abortion Amendments Certified for November Ballots in Arizona, Missouri
Voters in Arizona and Missouri will decide this November whether obtaining an abortion is a “fundamental right.”
Propositions to that effect were approved for both states’ general election ballots.
The citizen-led initiatives, certified by officials this week, have similar language. If passed, they would provide a right to abortion through fetal viability—the point at which a baby is believed capable of survival outside the womb—and in cases where a doctor has deemed the mother’s life or health is at risk.
If the amendments pass, the states would be part of a growing list of those that have voted in favor of abortion access in the two years since the U.S. Supreme Court’s Dobbs ruling overturned the federal right to abortion.
Harris, Walz Will Have Joint Bus Tour Ahead of DNC
Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tm Walz, are gearing up for the Democratic National Convention with a joint bus tour.
Harris, Walz and their spouses, second gentleman Doug Emhoff and Minnesota first lady Gwen Walz, will start the tour in Pittsburgh on Sunday. That follows Harris introducing Walz as her running mate at a Philadelphia rally last week, underscoring just how important a swing sate Pennsylvania will be.
The bus tour will begin a day after Walz makes a solo campaign stop in Omaha, Nebraska, the state where he was born.
Nebraska overall is reliably Republican, but awards its electoral votes by congressional district—meaning Omaha’s single delegate is competitive.
Both Walz and Harris will later in the week address their party’s convention, which opens on Monday in Chicago.
Senate Intelligence Committee Leaders Warn Against Meddling in US Elections
The leaders of the Senate intelligence committee are warning Iran and other adversaries not to meddle in the election after Trump’s campaign said it was hacked and blamed groups linked to Tehran.
Committee chairman Mark Warner (D-Va.) and Vice Chairman Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) said the alleged infiltration of the campaign’s systems is a reminder that “our foreign adversaries are intently interested in disrupting our democratic process.”
The two lawmakers called on law enforcement and the intelligence community to investigate and deter attempts to influence the election. They said the United States would respond to any nation that tries to hack into campaigns or spread disinformation in an effort to meddle with the election.
“There will be consequences to interfering in the American democratic process, and the Administration and both political parties must make that clear,” Warner and Rubio wrote.
The Trump campaign said Saturday that someone illegally accessed its network and obtained access to internal documents. Trump has blamed Iran, citing a Microsoft report stating Iran had sought to hack into a presidential campaign. Iran has denied involvement.
The FBI on Monday confirmed that it’s investigating the intrusion of the Trump campaign.
Trump Casts Early Vote in Florida State Primaries
Trump cast his early vote in the Florida state primaries Wednesday before traveling to Asheville, North Carolina, for a campaign rally. Tuesday is election day for the Florida primaries and some nonpartisan races.
The GOP presidential nominee told reporters he would be focusing his speech at the rally on the economy.
When asked about the FBI’s investigation into the alleged hacking of his campaign, Trump accused Iran of being behind it.
“They are looking at it, and they are doing it very professionally,” he said. “It looks like it’s Iran doing it. And the reason is because I was strong in Iran, and I was protecting people in the Middle East, and maybe they aren’t so happy about that.”
Trump said he did not want to say whether the information came from the FBI.
Trump’s 3rd Motion for Judge Recusal in New York Case Denied
Trump’s third attempt to have Judge Juan Merchan recuse himself from overseeing his criminal case in the New York Supreme Court was denied on Aug. 13.
In his most recent motion, Trump again raised concerns about an alleged conflict of interest, claiming that Merchan’s daughter stood to gain financially from the court’s decisions, as had been addressed in earlier motions to convince the judge to recuse.
Trump’s legal team argued that “the political and financial interest” of the judge’s daughter could potentially influence the rulings. The claim was first introduced on May 31, 2023, when Trump sought Merchan’s recusal for the first time.
In a letter to the judge, Trump’s attorney Todd Blanche said that the fact that Vice President Kamala Harris is now Trump’s opponent in the November presidential election, of which he is the Republican nominee, had renewed their focus on the judge’s daughter. Blanche wrote in the letter to the judge claiming that his daughter had previously worked closely with Harris in her 2020 campaign for president and had expressed support for her on social media.
Democrats Plan ‘DemPalooza’ During DNC Next Week
The Democratic National Committee will offer a schedule of trainings, panels and other programming it’s calling “DemPalooza” during the party’s convention in Chicago next week. The name is a play on the Lollapalooza music festival Chicago plays hosts to every year.
The DNC said Wednesday that the “DemPalooza” events will be held daily at McCormick Place. The convention itself will take place at the United Center.
“DemPalooza” events will range from trainings on how to use organizing tools to polling briefings and skills workshops. The DNC says these programs are part of its and the Harris campaign’s efforts to organize and reach voters in an evolving media environment and provide opportunities for Democrats to take what they’ve learned back to the communities that will decide the November presidential election.
“DemPalooza” will also feature an expo with vendor booths and interactive spaces for participants to make friendship bracelets, get a “Kamala Harris” manicure, listen to podcasts or watch performances by local artists.
Rachel Acenas, Samantha Flom, Chase Smith, and The Associated Press contributed to this report.