With Donald Trump and Kamala Harris neck and neck in the polls and favorability ratings, Republicans are funneling millions of dollars into attack ads against the vice president.
According to data from AdImpact, the Trump campaign and its affiliated super PACS shelled out 57 percent of the their television spending to anti-Harris campaigns, compared to the 8 percent dedicated to anti-Trump ads by the Democratic ticket, from Aug. 23 to Aug. 29.
“This is a moment in the message arc of us seeking to define her, she’s seeking to define herself,” a Trump adviser told The Washington Post. “We have a defined candidate—everyone knows everything about the person. There’s lots of new information about Kamala Harris that people just don’t know.”
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The Vice President’s campaign has opted to stand in contrast with her political opponent, casting the vice president as the “underdog candidate,” who hopes to move “past the bitterness, cynicism, and divisive battles of the past.”
“She’s not made herself a kind of symbol, she’s not made herself a historic candidate,” Democratic political strategist David Axelrod told the Post. “She’s simply running as someone who has the experience and the values to move the country forward and to deal with the problems that people are most concerned about, and I think that’s a wise strategy.”
Harris has generally ignored the GOP nominee’s personal jabs, dismissing Trump’s questioning of her racial identity and strategy as the “same old tired playbook,” in her interview with CNN’s Dana Bash.
In August, Trump re-hired his 2016 campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski, despite allegations of sexual misconduct. Lewandowski, who called Harris a “much easier opponent,” said that the campaign’s playbook to defeat the Democrats remained unchanged.
“Our focus every day is on ensuring the American people know Kamala’s dangerously liberal record and see her for who she is,” said the former president’s campaign spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt. “A phony, radical, San Francisco liberal who would further spiral our once great nation into a sanctuary for illegal immigrants and a nightmare for law-abiding Americans.”
If that plan fails, “then you define her as a liar who you can’t trust,” Republican strategist Jeff Roe told Puck.
