An anti-Trump Republican group is putting a hefty price tag of $50 million on a digital campaign to stop Donald Trump from winning a second White House term.
Republican Voters Against Trump are planning to gather testimonial videos of former Trump supporters sharing why they can no longer support the former President in the upcoming November election.
Organized by Republican strategist Sarah Longwell, the organization’s goal is to address “moderate Republican” and Republican-leaning swing state voters, who Longwell says hold the key to 2024, in the form of videos.
“Former Republicans and Republican-leaning voters hold the key to 2024, and reaching them with
credible, relatable messengers is essential to re-creating the anti-Trump coalition that made the difference in 2020,” Longwell, president of the group’s Republican Accountability PAC, said.“It establishes a permission structure that says that—whatever their complaints about Joe Biden—Donald Trump is too dangerous and too unhinged to be president again. Who better to make this case than the voters who used to support him?”
One of the first videos, published on March 12, starts with a montage of past supporters admitting they voted for Trump in both the 2016 and 2020 elections but regret it. Then, those same voters open up about why they
won’t be voting red in 2024. For a little over one minute, the registered Republicans touch on numerous factors swaying their decision—with one saying “Trump being the biggest threat to our democracy” and another simply saying “He has too much baggage.”Campaign participants aren’t pushing for people to vote for President Biden but are sharing which incidents made them leave Team Trump.
One voter named Joanna from Florida once thought the four-time indicted businessman had “great energy.” However, things changed for her when Trump stood outside St. John’s Church in Washington, D.C., shaking a Bible during a George Floyd protest. “I just thought it was gross. I don’t think he shares our faith. I feel that he was almost mocking it and, in a way, almost trying to weaponize it,” she said, according to Florida Politics
.“And I thought, that is absolutely not Christian beliefs. That’s not principles. That’s not what I want to see in our leader.”
The January 6 attacks were the last straw for Ethan from Wisconsin. He said that after that day, Biden would get his vote in 2024. “I voted for Donald Trump in 2020. January 6 was the end of Donald Trump for me,” the voter said. “The peaceful transfer of power is one of the defining pieces of our democracy, and I could not believe that someone I had formerly supported would get behind an effort that would throw that under the bus … There is no choice.”
With support from billionaires like LinkedIn co-founder and Democratic donor Reid Hoffman and Hyatt Hotels heir John Pritzker, the ads will appear on TV, streaming, radio, billboards, and digital media.