The best, worst and ugliest campaign ads of the 2024 election
With less than a week to go, campaigns have inundated any state or district with a competitive election with television ads to make their closing argument. This can be especially aggravating, especially after a long day of work where the average voter might just want to watch some mindless reality television or some football.
But in truth, campaigns needs to run ads there to meet voters where they are. This might be why we are seeing more ostentatious ads this election cycle than ever before.
While in her speeches, Vice President Kamala Harris has focused on the danger of Donald Trump’s rhetoric — even going so far as to call him a “petty tyrant” — most of her ads have gone all-in on the economy.
Meanwhile, Republicans, led by Trump, have done a slew of anti-transgender ads, focusing largely on the issue of transgender women in men’s sports.
Elsewhere, Republicans downballot have focused heavily on the US-Mexico border, while Democrats hope the Dobbs effect hasn’t faded and that they can focus heavily on abortion rights.
Here’s The Independent’s breakdown of the best, worst, the most absurd and the downright weirdest ads of 2024 in the final week of the campaign.
Sports and trash talk
Much has been made of Harris’s approach to winning back white male voters who previously voted for the Democratic Party, but have since run into Trump’s arms. Her selection of Tim Walz, the Minnesota governor who once represented a rural district, emphasized this push.
During the Pittsburgh Steelers’ game, her campaign ran an ad that featured a maintenance man by the name of Chris, a purported fan of the Black and Gold.
“Donald Trump does not care about the working man whatsoever,” Chris said in the ad, with “Fight for Your Right” by The Beastie Boys, who notoriously do not license music for ads, playing in the background.
“He’s a little rich kid, too,” Chris continues. “He ain’t me. Little silver spoon boy Donald Trump. How is he relatable to me whatsoever?”
On the other side of Pennsylvania, Harris’s campaign ran an ad featuring Trump saying, “Bad things happen in Philadelphia” before invoking the famous slogan about the City of Brotherly Love from Eagles legend — and Taylor Swift’s potential future brother-in-law — Jason Kelce: “No one likes us. We don’t care.”
“We’re Philly: F**kin’ Philly, and when you fight us, we fight back,” the ad says, before showing clips of Rocky Balboa.
In Detroit, Harris campaign invoked Trump saying, “Our whole country will end up being like Detroit,” before the narrator states “that he should be so goddamn lucky.”
In Milwaukee, Harris recruited Bucks head coach Doc Rivers to narrate an ad pushing back on Trump calling Milwaukee a “horrible city.” Not unlike the Democrats with Harris, the Bucks changed their coach mid-season last year to bring in the NBA championship-winning coach.
Trump — and Republicans — zero in on trans people
During his sole debate with Harris, Trump infamously claimed: “She wants to do transgender operations on illegal aliens that are in prison.”
Republicans have gone all-in on attacking Democrats when it comes to transgender people, not just on providing gender-affirming care for people in prison, but also when it comes to allowing transgender women to compete in women’s sports.
In one ad, the Trump campaign highlights Charlamagne Tha God, who recently interviewed Harris, saying, “Kamala supports taxpayer-funded sex changes for prisoners,” before adding: “Hell no, I don’t want my taxpayer dollars going to that.”
The ad continues by claiming: “Kamala even supports letting biological men compete against our girls.” It ends by saying “Kamala is for They/Them” while “President Trump is for you.”
But Trump is not the only candidate to run anti-trans ads. Senator Ted Cruz, who is in a surprisingly difficult fight for re-election in Texas, has gone all-in on an ad saying his opponent, Democratic Representative Colin Allred, voted to allow “boys in girls’ sports.”
Despite the avalanche of anti-trans ads on the Republican side, there is little evidence that anti-trans ads move the needle — and if anything, voters deeply dislike them.
Democrats bring up abortion
In 2022, Democrats staved off a red wave because of the Supreme Court’s Dobbs v Jackson decision that overturned Roe v Wade and put abortion rights in peril. Democrats hope that focusing heavily on abortion rights will save their Senate majority and help them flip the House of Representatives.
In Nevada, Senator Jacky Rosen, who is running far ahead of Republican Sam Brown, accuses him of backpedaling on his previous hardline stance on abortion.
In Wisconsin, Senator Tammy Baldwin, who is running neck-and-neck with Republican Eric Hovde, has emphasized the story of a woman who left Wisconsin to receive an abortion after she found out her baby would have fetal abnormalities.
Dan Osborn tries to hug Trump on the border
Perhaps the biggest wildcard this year has been Dan Osborn, an independent who is running neck-and-neck with Deb Fischer, the two-term Republican Senator from Nebraska. While Democrats would love to see Fischer lose, it’s not clear how Osborn would vote or if he would even caucus with them.
He’s focused heavily on unions in his ads. But he’s also creating distance from Republicans, particuarly by showing his hawkish attitude on one of the biggest hobby horses of the GOP: the US-Mexico border.
Indeed, in one ad, he even features himself with a blowtorch saying: “If Trump needs help building the wall, well, I'm pretty handy.”