Vice President Kamala Harris is launching new ads this weekend targeting men in battleground states as part of her campaign’s effort to close the deficit she faces with male voters in the final days before Election Day.
The new ads will air during sporting events on Sunday and Monday in Milwaukee, Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, where the campaign will air a unique spot during the broadcast of the Pittsburgh Steelers game on “Monday Night Football.” The ads are tailored to each of the three cities and each leans heavily into its respective city’s culture,
including references to local sports teams. All seek to portray Trump as an outsider in opposition to the relevant city’s working-class communities.
The ads are part of an effort to energize male voters as Harris seeks to narrow the gender gap in support for her and for former President Donald Trump. A CNN national poll of likely voters released on Friday found Trump has the support of 51% of men compared with Harris’ 45% support among male voters.
Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, are continuing their outreach to male voters with campaign events, interviews and digital media content. On Sunday, Walz will play the Madden NFL football simulation video game on the live-streaming platform Twitch with New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Harris will visit a youth basketball facility in northwest Philadelphia during her trip to Pennsylvania on Sunday. Her interview on NFL star and TV personality Shannon Sharpe’s podcast will air on Monday, the latest in a series of interviews with media personalities popular with men, including the “All the Smoke” podcast with former NBA players Stephen Jackson and Matt Barnes and an interview with radio host Charlamagne Tha God.
The new ads seek to invoke regional pride by highlighting Trump’s past criticisms of the battleground-state cities and using the imagery and language of local sports teams. A Harris campaign official told CNN the ads, which are largely devoid of language on policy or major campaign issues, are leveraging sports as a vehicle to galvanize low-propensity, disengaged male voters, including younger voters, among whom the disparity in support for Harris between men and women is particularly pronounced. A Harvard Youth Poll of likely voters under 30 years old nationally found Harris leading Trump by 47% with women under 30, but leading by just 17% with men under 30.
The ad airing in Milwaukee features Doc Rivers, head coach of the Milwaukee Bucks and co-chair of “Athletes for Harris,” and highlights Trump’s criticism of Milwaukee ahead of the city hosting the Republican National Convention in July. The ad airing in Philadelphia features Trump’s criticism of the city during a 2020 presidential debate, with a narrator referencing Philadelphia’s political and football history to encourage voters to stand up to Trump.
“When you fight us, we fight back. From 1776 to 4th and 26. So go ahead, talk whatever shit you want, Donald. We’re voting soon. And when it comes to freedom, Philly is undefeated,” the narrator says in the ad.
The Pittsburgh ad features Chris, a Pittsburgh Steelers season ticket holder and maintenance worker, discussing his memories of Steelers fandom and self-identifying as a “yinzer,” a slang term for Pittsburgh natives, before spelling out the difference between his story and Trump’s upbringing.
“Donald Trump does not care about the working man whatsoever,” he says in the ad. “He’s a little rich kid too, he ain’t me. Little silver spoon boy Donald Trump. How is he relatable to me whatsoever? The guy literally lives in a country club. Do I look like a country club kind of guy?”
The Trump campaign has also made a point of courting male voters. Trump has appeared at sporting events and on several podcasts and radio shows popular with men, including his interview with Joe Rogan on Friday. Harris campaign spokesperson Ian Sams said in an MSNBC interview on Thursday that the Harris campaign has been in touch with Rogan but an interview has not been scheduled.
The Harris campaign has also sought to use issues that have helped it make greater inroads with female voters to appeal to male voters in recent weeks, arguing that access to reproductive health care should be a top priority for male voters because of the impact it could have on the lives of the women in their lives. Former first lady Michelle Obama made a passionate plea to male voters to consider the importance of reproductive health care in her first appearance on the campaign trail in Michigan on Saturday.
“Please do not hand our fates over to the likes of Trump, who knows nothing about us, who has shown deep contempt for us,” she told male voters in the Kalamazoo, Michigan, crowd. “Because a vote for him is a vote against us, against our health, against our worth.”
