The first negative ad against Democratic presidential front-runner Joe Biden is set to run on Friday, sponsored by a rival with arguably the least chance of capturing his party’s nomination, former Alaska Sen. Mike Gravel.
The paid spot attacks Biden from the Left for his record on foreign policy, busing, criminal justice, and abortion. Gravel’s presidential campaign, which is run by two New York teenagers, bought a minute-long ad spot to play Friday during MSNBC’s Deadline: White House, which airs at 4 p.m.
“Who do you want to lead our party next?” asks the ad’s narrator, before running clips of the former vice president defending his positions on issues such as the Iraq War and the 1994 crime bill. The ad concludes with a plea to “Send Sen. Gravel to the debates to call out Biden.”
The total cost for the spot was roughly $30,000, according to the campaign. It will also air on five local TV stations in Cedar Rapids and Des Moines, Iowa.
Gravel, 89, has not run a serious campaign for the right to challenge President Trump in 2020. He’s largely focused on getting into the Democratic National Committee-sponsored debates, which require increasing amounts of individual donors and support in the polls. Gravel sought the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination, more than a quarter-century after being ousted from his Alaska Senate seat, after 12 years. Gravel received some serious media coverage in 2007, which dried up after he finished back-of-the-pack in the New Hampshire Democratic primary.
The teenagers behind Gravel’s campaign have said they will largely abandon the quixotic effort should their candidate not make the debate stage.
Gravel and Biden served together in the Senate from 1973 to 1981, the early part of the future vice president’s 36-year career in the chamber.
[Read more: 89-year-old Mike Gravel trolls younger 2020 Democrats for polling beneath him]
