Fed Up Republicans Launch $3M Ad Campaign To Take Down Trump

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An anti-Trump group called the Republican Accountability Project is unveiling $3 million worth of ads across some of the closest states in the 2020 presidential election with the aim of informing and reminding voters of January 6 and its ramifications.

The ad buy was set to launch Monday. The productions include footage of the Capitol violence, remarks from prominent Republican Trump critic Rep. Liz Cheney (Wyo.), and comments from individuals currently or previously involved with the Republican Party who are now critical of Trump and what he represents. The ads are slated to air for three weeks during local news broadcasts in key markets in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. The ads were also set for promotion on digital platforms, and the organization behind this effort indicated through a spokesperson it was willing to extend the ad buy’s length.

The organization utilizes everyday people in the clips. “The assault on police officers, the destruction of property, the reason for being there — to stop certification of the election,” a voter named Tom describes in one ad about some of his issues with the GOP. “If they had found Mike Pence, do you have any doubt that he would have been hung? Somehow there needs to be accountability for the people who masterminded that horrible event.”

Besides easily perceptible ramifications for the midterm elections, the Republican Accountability Project’s goals include “to help influence Republican voters to support someone other than Trump in the next presidential election,” POLITICO reports. Trump’s name recognition certainly hasn’t vaporized, and he remains evidently committed to maintaining his place in the political ecosystem, but certain polling suggests some Republican voters are ready for an alternative. In a survey from The New York Times and Siena College, Trump led potential GOP primary challengers, but he didn’t crack more than half the overall support. Single-state polling in New Hampshire and Florida found the latter’s GOP Governor Ron DeSantis leading Trump in a potential 2024 face-off. Notably, Cheney conspicuously refuses to rule out the possibility of running for president herself.

Sarah Longwell, who’s executive director at the organization behind these ads, indicated the group utilized focus groups and platform testing in honing its approach and discovering what’s evidently effective. Longwell also indicated that since the start of public hearings from the House committee investigating the Capitol riot, where Cheney is vice chair, the group observed “a real drop off, in focus groups, of people who want to see Trump run again in 2024.” The ads that the Republican Accountability Project is running will occupy a considerable amount of the time before the riot panel begins holding public hearings again. The Republican Accountability PAC — the political action committee associated with the folks behind the ads — is separately planning to spend $10 million in opposition to candidates across 14 states who previously expressed support for Trump’s lies about the 2020 election. Trump is also closely involved in the midterms, with a slew of candidates he directly supports running for office nationwide.