Trump and Harris kick off ad campaign war, placing major TV ad buys in battleground states

(WASHINGTON) — Former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris have now kicked off their ad war with both of their campaigns launching major eight-figure ad campaigns targeting each other in key battleground states.

The Harris campaign this week is launching a $50 million three-week ad blitz through the Democratic National Convention next month, with the first ad of her campaign introducing the vice president to voters, highlighting her career and taking hits at her Republican opponent, the campaign announced.

The Trump campaign too has launched its first major television ad in battleground states attacking Harris since as least January, reserving at least $12 million worth of airtime this week, according to ad tracking firm AdImpact.

Trump’s 30-second ad, released by the his campaign, zeroes in on the former president’s ongoing rhetoric that Harris “failed” as President Joe Biden’s border czar, calling her “weak” and “dangerously liberal.”

“This is America’s border czar, and she’s failed us. Under Harris, over 10 million illegally here, a quarter of a million Americans dead from fentanyl, brutal migrant crimes, and ISIS now here,” a narrator in the ad says, followed by an interview clip of Harris appearing to admit she hasn’t visited the border.

“Kamala Harris. Failed. Weak. Dangerously liberal,” the narration continues.

According to AdImpact, the Trump campaign has reserved $12 million worth of airtime across Pennsylvania, Georgia, Michigan, Arizona, Nevada and Wisconsin.

After a week of working to determine the best language to attack Harris since Biden left the 2024 race, this ad campaign reflects the Trump campaign’s push to focus on the border — a major campaign issue for voters.

In response to the Trump campaign’s ad, the Harris campaign suggests that the vice president was focused on addressing the root causes of migration and claimed that at no point in her tenure was she in charge of managing the border.

Harris’ first ad, titled “Fearless” and featuring pictures of Harris over the years — from a toddler to college graduate to vice president — highlights her background as a former prosecutor who is “uniquely suited to take on” the former president, who is now a convicted felon.

“As a prosecutor, she put murderers and abusers behind bars,” a narrator says in the one-minute ad. “As California’s attorney general, she went after the big banks and won $20 billion for homeowners. And as vice president, she took on the big drug companies to cap the cost of insulin for seniors. Because Kamala Harris has always known who she represents.”

The spot then leads into laying out Harris’ vision and attacking Trump, using footage from her first rally of the campaign last week in a high school gym just outside Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

“We believe in a future where every person has the opportunity not just to get by, but to get ahead. Where every senior can retire with dignity,” Harris said in the footage from the rally. “But Donald Trump wants to take our country backward, to give tax breaks to billionaires and big corporations and end the Affordable Care Act.”

This ad is scheduled to run on local and national broadcast, cable programming, streaming and social channels over the next three weeks, including during the Olympic Games, as well as programs like “The Bachelorette,” “Big Brother” and “The Daily Show.”

The Harris campaign has reserved airtime in states like Michigan, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Arizona, Georgia, Nevada and North Carolina, according to ad tracking firm Medium Buying.