A Republican group is launching an anti-Trump advertising campaign in Iowa in the hopes that the former president can be defeated in his bid for a third consecutive GOP nomination. The ad will feature voters who backed Trump in previous elections but have since soured on the controversial figurehead.
“The group, the Republican Accountability Project, is spending $1.5 million on ads in Iowa to try to persuade likely Trump voters that the former president would struggle to win the 2024 general election,” The New York Times reported.
The RAP’s goal? “to help lift another contender to the Republican nomination – anyone but Mr. Trump.”
Donald Trump and His Greatest Weakness
The ads will feature Iowa voters delivering a practical message: they like Trump – but he will fail to win back the White House for the GOP. Why? Because Trump struggles to attract swing voters.
“In one spot, Fran, a two-time Trump supporter, says she “really appreciated” his presidency. But she adds that she will not support him again in the primary,” The New York Times reported.
“Donald Trump has way too much political baggage,” Fran says in the ad. “The next Republican candidate has to be somebody who can convince swing voters, independents, to vote for them. Because Donald Trump can’t.”
I like the tact. I think Democrats should take some cues from moderate Republicans who are ready for a new candidate and emphasize a practical argument as to why voters should not back Trump. Granted, a practical argument from Republicans and Democrats is going to be different, but the principle stands, the effect could be similar.
Regardless, the Democrat’s current tact, the gloom and doom hyperbole about existential threats to America, about moral imperatives, it’s just not working.
Democrats have been hitting those talking points for eight years and it hasn’t moved the needle one single inch. If anything, the doomsaying and it’s corollaries have made Trump stronger. Two impeachments. Two indictments (and counting). One civil conviction. Various scandals. A presidential election defeat. And Trump’s vice-grip on the GOP is as strong as ever; he is thirty something points ahead of DeSantis in Iowa and South Carolina right now.
Now, Fran and her practical plea probably is going to bring Trump back into striking range for DeSantis or Haley or Scott. And it’s not like similar messages haven’t been rolled out in various forms in the past. But at least the ads take an angle that has the vaguest potential to appeal to a former Trump voter.
Whereas Democrats imply through all their messaging that you have to have been a raging idiot to have ever voted for Trump for any reason ever, the new Republican ads sympathize with previous Trump voters, appeal to their sensibilities rather than insult their dignity, and suggest they try something new.
The reasons behind the ads
The point the ads are making, that Trump will struggle to win back the White House, is already on the minds of GOP voters. “A portion of the Republican Party – perhaps 30 percent – supports the former president but worries he could not win the White House,” The New York Times reported.
The advertisements hope to emphasize Trump’s political vulnerabilities and inspire Iowa voters to support an alternative in the Iowa primary, which is “emerging as a crucial battleground.”
Harrison Kass is the Senior Editor and opinion writer at 19FortyFive. An attorney, pilot, guitarist, and minor pro hockey player, Harrison joined the US Air Force as a Pilot Trainee but was medically discharged. Harrison holds a BA from Lake Forest College, a JD from the University of Oregon, and an MA from New York University. Harrison listens to Dokken.
From 19FortyFive
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