A new $50 million ad campaign will help share stories from Florida voters who previously backed Donald Trump but won't again.
Republican Voters Against Trump just launched a major digital project featuring lengthy, first-person testimonials, which will be pushed on digital platforms targeting swing states.
It's part of an effort from the Republican Accountability PAC. Organizers of the campaign said the goal is to shore up support in states where Joe Biden performed well when he defeated Trump in 2020, based in part on the number of moderate and anti-Trump Republicans who supported the Democrat. Ads will appear on TV, streaming, radio, billboards and digital media.
"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," said Sarah Longwell, President of Republican Accountability PAC.
"It establishes a permission structure that says that — whatever their complaints about Joe Biden — Donald Trump is too dangerous and too unhinged to ever be President again. Who better to make this case than the voters who used to support him?"
The campaign initially will focus on reaching "blue wall" states that went to Trump in 2016 but Biden in 2020. But it will include several voices from Florida, all sharing specifically conservative reasons why they can't back Trump again.
A Florida voter named Joanna described in a nearly four-minute video how she initially thought Trump had "great energy." But she was upset multiple times over his first term, including during the George Floyd protests in Washington when Trump shook a Bible at demonstrators outside St. John's Church.
"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. "And I thought, that is absolutely not Christian beliefs. That's not principles. That's not what I want to see in our leader."
A Gainesville voter named Alan said in a video running under a minute that he feels Trump is too controlled by Russian President Vladimir Putin.
"I just think the evidence is overwhelming and everything he does is to support Putin," he said.
"If Trump were to get in, I mean, what's going to happen? He's going to cut off Ukraine. Ukraine could fall. He's told people that he's not going to defend Europe. Putin will be able to start attacking countries on the edge. It'll just be World War III. In 2024 if Biden's the way to keep Trump out, I'll vote for him, reluctantly, but I'll do whatever it takes to keep Trump out of power."
Repeatedly, voters bring up the events of Jan. 6, 2021, when pro-Trump protesters rioted at the Capitol in an attempt to disrupt certification of Biden's electoral victory. Doug, a Florida voter who backed Trump in 2016 with Supreme Court Justices in mind but was done with him by 2020, said the events of that day cemented his view on the Republican President.
"Trump's behavior was unbelievable," he said. "We didn't have a peaceful transfer of power. That upset me. His behavior when the raid on the Capitol started and it took him three hours to finally tell his supporters to stop, and he really didn't try to do anything when they were saying 'hang Mike Pence,' our Vice President, (it) just was unbelievable to me how he acted. In good conscience, I cannot vote for Trump again."
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