Harris campaign launches TV ads around Trump's Mar-a-lago home tying him to Project 2025
WASHINGTON — Vice President Kamala Harris' campaign for president launched a new television and digital ad blitz Wednesday warning voters of the Project 2025 conservative policy blueprint.
And there's a certain individual the campaign hopes will see it.
While the ads will air across seven critical battleground states, the Harris campaign is also paying to have it run specifically in Florida's Palm Beach-Fort Pierce media market ? so that former President Donald Trump might come across it while flipping through channels from his Mar-a-Lago home.
"Donald Trump's back, and he's out for control, and he has a plan to get it. It's called Project 2025," a narrator says in the ad while showing clips of the former president saying, "I would have every right to go after them" and "I will wield that power very aggressively."
The ad, which is not running in other parts of Florida, describes Project 2025 as a "922-page blueprint to make Donald Trump the most powerful president ever."
Project 2025, the creation of the conservative think-tank the Heritage Foundation, contains controversial proposals to eliminate the Department of Education, limit access to abortion pills, overhaul the FBI and reinstate a Trump executive order to allow the president to replace civil servants with political appointees throughout the federal government.
More: Is Trump nervous about Florida? Dems say new ad buy is proof state's competitive
The Trump campaign has worked aggressively to try to distance itself from Project 2025, with Trump saying he has “no idea who is behind” it. But the plan was produced by more than 100 former Trump administration officials, and Project 2025's director was Paul Dans, who served as the U.S. Office of Personnel Management chief of staff in the Trump administration.
The Palm Beach, Florida market is also the recent target of Trump campaign ads ? a move also seemingly made with the former president in mind as the primary audience. The Trump campaign this week booked $48,000 work of ads, a small amount for political advertising, in the Mar-a-lago market, according to AdImpact, which tracks paid media buys.
"Florida is deep red, Trump country but we will never take any state for granted," Trump spokesman Brian Hughes said. "We have robust campaign organizations across the nation and make investments throughout."
More: What is Project 2025? Inside the conservative plan Trump claims to have 'no idea' about.
The new Harris campaign ads focused on Project 2025 are part of a $370 million paid media plan the Harris campaign has reserved between Labor Day and Election Day on Nov. 5.
Trump's home state of Florida is not among the seven top battleground states that are the most closely contested ? Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Michigan, Arizona, Nevada, Georgia and North Carolina. Still, it's a state that the Harris campaign has targeted with some investments, encouraged that a ballot amendment added to the November ballot to ensure abortion access puts the state in play.
More: Donald Trump says he'll participate in Sept. 10 debate after casting doubt
A USA TODAY/Suffolk University/WSVN-TV poll this month found Trump leading Harris among likely voters in Florida, 47%-42%. President Joe Biden lost Florida to trump in 2020 by 3.3% percentage points. The last time a Democratic presidential nominee won Florida was Barack Obama in 2012.
Reach Joey Garrison on X, formerly Twitter, @joeygarrison.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Harris campaign targets Trump's Mar-a-lago home in new TV ad blitz
