Buttigieg launches digital ad buy in Super Tuesday states
February 8, 2020
Pete Buttigieg is pushing into Super Tuesday and beyond with a round of digital ads in seven states, targeting counties that flipped from Barack Obama to Donald Trump in 2016 — shedding light on the former South Bend, Ind., mayor’s strategy in the next phase of the primary.
Buttigieg, who has not yet built out a robust on-the-ground infrastructure in Super Tuesday states, is going up with a six-figure digital ad buy in Minnesota, Michigan, Maine, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Virginia. The ads, airing on YouTube, will kick off after Tuesday and will continue to run through March 3. They’re added to a slate of buys in Nevada and South Carolina, the remaining early states.
The location of the digital ad buy lends some insight into Buttigieg’s post-early state strategy: focus on largely majority-white, battleground states that Democrats lost to Trump. In 2016, Democrats watched its “blue wall,” including traditional Democratic strongholds Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, all go to Trump. Minnesota, another swing state, saw the narrowest Democratic margin. Buttigieg’s ads target those states with promises of “unity” in his new ads.
But the ads don’t cover a swath of southern and Sunbelt states, from Alabama to Texas to California, where Buttigieg will likely face the stiffest competition against presidential rivals who poll better among voters of color, particularly former Vice President Joe Biden.
Buttigieg, who narrowly won Iowa last week, entered New Hampshire with the wind at his back, watching his poll numbers in the state grow this week. But Sen. Bernie Sanders, who hails from neighboring Vermont, still leads and Buttigieg is staring down a slate of more diverse states where he has so far struggled to gain any significant traction.
Another challenge for the Democratic presidential candidates looms large on Super Tuesday. Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg has already dropped more than $300 million on TV ads in these states, as his national polling numbers continue to creep up.
Buttigieg’s digital ads track with his messaging drumbeat in Iowa and New Hampshire — winning in the general election by not only winning Democrats, but bringing in independents and “future former Republicans.”
“Something is stirring in America right now. You can feel it — in the bluest counties and the reddest, in rural towns and industrial cities,” Buttigieg narrates over sweeping footage of the United States and close-up shots of Buttigieg greeting voters. “When Washington has never felt further from our everyday lives. All standing together."
“If you are ready to build an American future defined by unity in the face of our greatest challenges — this is our chance,” Buttigieg concludes.
In Iowa, Buttigieg frequently campaigned in counties that flipped from Obama to Trump, and last Tuesday he won two-thirds of them. He’s aiming to repeat that showing in New Hampshire, where independents are allowed to vote in the Democratic primary.
“We may not agree on everything," Buttigieg said on Saturday in Keene, N.H., "but we can agree that the time has come to deliver change before it’s too late."
Source: https://www.politico.com/
