Yet another group of Republicans has formed a super PAC in support of Joe Biden over Donald Trump in the lead-up to the 2020 general election.
“Right Side PAC” will target disillusioned former Trump voters in battleground states who might be open to voting for Biden this time around—something the group’s founder, former Ohio Republican Party chairman Matt Borges, calls “the correction option.” Anthony Scaramucci, who served a whole 10 days as Trump’s communications director in 2017, is also involved with the group, along with a few dozen Republican operatives.
According to Axios, the group won’t be running TV ads, but will focus on digital, mail, and telephone approaches to reaching voters and major Republican donors and making them feel “comfortable” with a Biden option.
Last week, a group called Republican Voters Against Trump launched an ad airing on Fox News. The conservative-led Lincoln Project continues to put out anti-Trump (though not necessarily pro-Biden) ads. They got a lot of attention when Donald Trump had a Twitter meltdown over their Reagan-inspired commercial. Their new ad is also clearly meant to get a response, as it speculates about Trump’s health, calling him a “weak, unfit, shaky president.”
For better or for worse, it’s exactly the kind of ad Republicans would make.
It makes sense that more moderate Republicans would be trying to sway fellow conservative voters over to Biden. Biden has worked hard to sell himself as someone that is willing to work with Republicans, even as Republicans have spent years demonstrating that they have no interest in compromising with Democrats, just steamrolling or stonewalling. But of the once historically diverse and progressive Democratic field, Biden stood out for being the middle-of-the-road candidate—someone who “moderates” wouldn’t feel threatened by. Matt Borges specifically said that if Bernie Sanders or Elizabeth Warren had gotten the nomination, he and his group would not be trying to get them votes.
So sure, if these groups want to gather up as many Republican votes as they can, fine. (Although it’s not just about individual votes. Those major conservative donors being targeted by Right Side PAC will expect to have sway over Biden if he makes it into office.)
But even Biden’s own ads are also focused on an anti-Trump message far more than they are pro-himself. The Democratic Party released their first 2020 presidential ad this week, and it doesn’t even mention Biden (aside from the “I approve this message” tag at the end).
Trump’s descent didn’t stop when he got to the bottom of that escalator. He’s shown there’s no depth he won’t sink to — and no depth he won’t drag our country to along with him. pic.twitter.com/fnHqUFtrgy
— DNC War Room (@DNCWarRoom) June 16, 2020
That sort of message might sway some white, college-educated, suburban Republicans (Right Side’s self-described target demographic) to vote for Biden, but it’s going to do very little to energize the enormous bloc of young, progressive voters that have helped push the party further left in recent midterm elections but rarely feel passionate about general elections between two old white men.
(via Axios, image: BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP/Getty Images)
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