Sep 6, 2023 - Politics & Policy

First look: Biden's super PAC joins fall advertising fray

The super PAC backing President Biden is launching a joint $13 million national advertising campaign with a progressive climate group to convince voters that Bidenomics is working for them.

Why it matters: After a summer of selling his economic and environmental packages, team Biden knows that it has more work to do to convince a skeptical public that the economy is in good shape.

  • The ad buy — focused on swing states and key demographics — will complement the official Biden campaign's plan to use the NFL season opener Thursday to launch its $25 million fall campaign.
  • Even with robust job growth, the public remains unconvinced about Biden's economic record, with 58% of voters saying the economy has gotten worse over the past two years, according to a Wall Street Journal survey released this week.

Between the lines: The double-barreled approach — from the Biden campaign and allied groups — reveals an inherent advantage the incumbent president has at this stage of the campaign cycle.

  • Biden and his allies can go on offense while Republicans are mostly knifing each other — or, in the case of Trump, paying legal bills.
  • Trump's leadership PAC, Save America, spent more than $36 million on legal fees for Trump's aides and his associates between Jan. 1 of 2021 and June 30 of this year, the Wall Street Journal reported from FEC data.

Driving the news: Future Forward USA Action, a super PAC for Biden, and Climate Power, a progressive environmental group, are spending the $13 million on a combination of broadcast, cable and digital advertising.

  • "Thanks to Joe Biden's Inflation Reduction Act, we'll be doubling the number of jobs in the next month or so," says a narrator on the factory floor of a battery facility in one of the ads.
  • The new campaign expands, by several million dollars, on the $20 million campaign the groups started last spring.

What they're saying: "The American people deserve the right to know what is happening and how it will impact their lives," said Chauncey McLean, president of Future Forward USA Action.

  • "This campaign reaches key audiences on their TV and digital screens to highlight the Biden administration's record of job growth, a manufacturing renaissance, a clean energy boom and reforms that lower costs."
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