Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign continued its swift rollout of digital ads Tuesday, appealing to the rural voters who helped elect her Republican opponent, Donald Trump, in 2016. The new ad, “Not Again,” features a Bob and Kristina Lange, a Pennsylvania couple struggling to maintain a farm that’s been in their family since 1896. The Langes describe themselves as “lifelong Republicans”—Kristina says she voted for Trump in 2016, while Bob voted for him in 2020 as well.
But this year, they say they’re voting for Harris.
White rural voters are a crucial part of Trump’s base. As Daily Kos’ Markos Moulitsas noted last week, they’re the key to Republicans taking back the White House in November. But Trump’s policies—both now and when he held the highest office—deeply conflict with the needs of rural voters, including farmers.
Bob, who also says the riot at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, was a “wake-up call” about Trump, makes it clear that the 45th president left people like him behind.
“[Trump] didn’t do anything to help us. Kamala Harris, she cares about the American people. I think she’s got the wherewithal to make a difference,” Bob says in the ad.
As Daily Kos’ Morgan Stephens reported Monday, Trump’s shortsighted focus on tariffs and restricting immigration would devastate American farmers. The former would price them out of production, while the latter would crush the agricultural labor force. Roughly 40% of farm workers are undocumented, according to estimates from the USDA. And intensely anti-immigrant laws championed by Republicans in agriculture-heavy states, like Florida, have already launched a massive struggle to staff the state’s farms, leading to rotting crops and over $12 billion in predicted negative annual economic impact.
As Bob puts it in “Common Sense,” which is the radio complement to the “Not Again” ad, “Never thought I’d say this, but the Democrats are the party of common sense. Trump’s economic plans only benefit billionaires and huge corporations. Kamala Harris and Tim Walz are focusing on the needs of everyday Americans. I have no doubt that Kamala Harris will make correct decisions for the middle class. And I think that’s what we need. We can’t go back. We got to go forward.”
The ads will target rural Pennsylvania voters in “predominantly rural counties that Trump carried by double digits in 2020,” the campaign said in a statement, in an attempt to reach over a half-million voters outside the cities of Pittsburgh and Philadelphia and their associated suburbs.
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