The League of Conservation Voters announced plans to spend $14 million investment to oust President Trump, beginning with a pair of hard-hitting digital advertisements that claim the commander in chief is as irresponsible on climate issues as he is on the coronavirus.
The group’s “high frequency” advertising campaign, which includes a direct-mail component, began Monday in Arizona, Michigan, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin — five states that could tip the balance of power on Election Day. The group is extending the ads to Florida, another major 2020 battleground, on May 27. Trump is under fire from multiple liberal groups that are spending hundreds of millions to elect presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden.
“Voters need to know that Trump denies the threat of climate change just like he denied the threat of the coronavirus,” LCV spokesman Pete Maysmith said in a statement.
In one spot, the League of Conservation Voters says of the president: “He denied the warnings of the coronavirus crisis, ignored his medical experts. And we’re suffering because of it.” And the group uses this charge to undermine Trump’s support for domestic fossil fuel extraction and production. “And Donald Trump ignored 97% of climate scientists, NASA, and the Department of Defense who agreed climate change was real,” the spot says.
To maximize the reach of its ads, the LCV is partnering in its effort with Priorities USA, the designated super PAC of the Biden campaign.
Republicans are confident that Trump’s environmental policies are a political winner in key states, such as Michigan and Pennsylvania, where the energy industry is a major economic driver.
Biden recently appointed Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to his panel on climate policy. The New York Democrat is the author of the Green New Deal, an aggressive plan to eliminate most uses of fossil fuels in a bid to mitigate climate change. Republicans are calling the move by Biden political malpractice.
