With the presidential debate less than two days away, the Democratic National Committee is launching an extensive messaging campaign against former President Donald Trump throughout Philadelphia, Spectrum News has learned exclusively.


What You Need To Know

  • With the presidential debate less than two days away, the Democratic National Committee is launching an extensive messaging campaign against former President Donald Trump throughout Philadelphia, Spectrum News has learned exclusively
  • The plane will fly the banner around Citizens Bank Park in South Philadelphia for four hours, beginning at 2:30pm to greet attendees, and taking off before the scheduled first pitch at 6:40pm
  • Over the weekend, the DNC deployed similar tactics, with banners flying over the Big House in Ann Arbor, Mich., as Michigan State took on GOP vice presidential nominee Sen. JD Vance’s alma mater, Ohio State University.
  • The DNC said it will also be blanketing the city with a flier addressing Project 2025

The strategy is a combination of traditional billboards, flyers, and an airplane banner flown over the Philadelphia Phillies match-up against the Tampa Bay Rays Monday night. The plane will fly the banner around Citizens Bank Park in South Philadelphia for four hours, beginning at 2:30 p.m. to greet attendees, and taking off before the scheduled first pitch at 6:40 p.m.

Over the weekend, the DNC deployed similar tactics, with banners flying over the Big House in Ann Arbor, Mich., as Michigan State took on GOP vice presidential nominee Sen. JD Vance’s alma mater, Ohio State University.

Other banners were spotted at games this weekend, including the Penn State vs Bowling Green game in State College, Penn. and the University of Wisconsin vs. South Dakota game in Madison, Wis. All three states – Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin – are battleground states Democrats see as critical to winning the White House.

A mock-up of the banner that will fly over the Phillies game, obtained by Spectrum News, reads “Don’t Strikeout W/Trump Go to Bat 4Harris,” with the DNC calling a vote for the Trump-Vance ticket “a strikeout thanks to their dangerous and extreme Project 2025 agenda.”

(Courtesy of the Democratic National Committee)
(Courtesy of the Democratic National Committee)

“Kamala Harris and Coach Tim Walz will go to bat for the middle class and continue to move this country forward. Democrats are leaving nothing to chance as we meet voters where they are – on and off the field,” said DNC spokesperson Addy Toevs in a statement. “Together, we can make a home run for working Pennsylvanians and send Donald Trump’s radical Project 2025 packing.”

In addition to the overhead advertisement, the campaign is launching billboards up and down Interstates 76 and 95, some of the most heavily traveled corridors in the Philadelphia area. The DNC has three different billboards that will be put up during the day Monday, focusing on Project 2025, and a comment Trump made about City of Brotherly Love during his first campaign for president in 2016 – that “bad things happen in Philadelphia.”

“In the cradle of liberty, our rights are on the line. If Trump wins, he will eliminate the independence of the Department of Justice, use unprecedented power to control our lives, and  fulfill his promise of being a ‘dictator on day one.’ The stakes are high this November, and tomorrow, Vice President Harris will lay out her vision for Pennsylvania and the nation, where nobody is above the law, every vote counts, and we chart a new way forward, together,” added Toevs.

(Courtesy of the Democratic National Committee)
(Courtesy of the Democratic National Committee)

The DNC said it will also be blanketing the city with a flier addressing Project 2025 – a detailed blueprint for Trump’s next term developed by his allies and former administration officials at the Heritage Foundation. The Trump campaign has attempted to distance itself from the plan, but Democrats have continued to tie Project 2025 to the former president, particularly when it comes to abortion and changes to the structure of American government. The agenda includes a recommendation for the Food and Drug Administration to reverse its approval of mifepristone, the widely used abortion pill and limit access to the drug via mail, and sights heterosexual couples as the “ideal, natural family structure.” 

(Courtesy of the Democratic National Committee)
(Courtesy of the Democratic National Committee)