Democratic nominee Joseph R. Biden’s presidential campaign on Wednesday announced it was spending $65 million on an ad blitz this week that includes new spots focused on health care and marks its “single largest” paid media investment while it’s been active in battleground states.
The announcement came after President Trump’s team canceled some of its planned advertising to conserve money for the stretch run, though Mr. Trump’s camp did announce an “eight-figure” buy on Tuesday with a focus on the economy.
The Biden campaign said the $65 million blitz that will span TV, radio, digital, and print is “the single largest paid media investment the campaign has made to date while active in ten battleground states.”
In one ad, a woman from Texas says that if Mr. Trump gets rid of Obamacare, her son Beckett, who has leukemia, won’t be protected.
The ad will run on broadcast and digital platforms in Michigan, Minnesota, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin.
In another spot, a father from Arizona whose son Anthony has a pre-existing heart condition slammed Mr. Trump for trying to “roll back protections for pre-existing conditions in the middle of a pandemic.”
“It’s mind-blowing,” he says.
The spot will run in Arizona, Florida, and Nevada.
Health care was the biggest issue for voters in the 2018 midterms, according to exit polling.
The campaign also rolled out two 15-second TV ads that include clips from Mr. Biden’s speeches in which he says Mr. Trump failed to protect Americans and calls on the president to “do your job” to combat COVID-19.
The president has repeatedly said he wants to protect people with pre-existing conditions, though his administration is in court trying to overturn all of Obamacare, which protects people with pre-existing conditions from losing their health care coverage.
Mr. Trump told a voter at a town hall in Pennsylvania on Tuesday that the protections should not be removed.
“We’re going to be doing a health care plan very strongly and protect people with pre-existing conditions,” he said.
The president said last month that he was pursuing an executive order requiring insurance companies to cover pre-existing conditions as a “double safety net.”
