The Biden-Harris campaign is planning to spend about $14 million to advertise in battleground states this month, looking to leverage its fundraising advantage over the presidential campaign of former President Donald Trump and build up a presence on the ground and across media platforms.

"We know in this highly personalized media environment that parachuting in at the last minute simply is not going to work," said Dan Kanninen, the Battleground States Director for the Biden-Harris Campaign. "We also know that in an election this close we have to reach out to every gettable voter."

What You Need To Know

  • The Biden-Harris campaign is planning to leverage its fundraising advantage over the Trump campaign with a $14 million ad buy to advertise in battleground states this month, campaign officials said

  • An ad entitled "Terminate" will focus on Trump's attacks on the Affordable Care Act — also known as Obamacare — which has grown increasingly popular among Americans

  • President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, their respective spouses and various surrogates are campaigning across the country, with a focus on reaching Black and Latino communities and targeting swing states in the South, the Southwest and the Rust Belt

Their plan, campaign advisers say, is to hammer the Trump campaign on health care, making sure that Americans know of Trump’s history of seeking to repeal the Affordable Care Act, which overhauled the health care system; most prominently, it prevent insurers from denying applicants because of preexisting medical conditions.

An ad expected to release this week repeatedly drums on Trump’s verbal attacks on the ACA — also known as Obamacare — in late-night social media posts and campaign rallies within the last two years. In an Iowa rally earlier this year, Trump said "Obamacare is a catastrophe," and on Truth Social, Trump criticized GOP Senators who "raised their hands not to terminate it" despite years of campaigning to kill Obamacare. However, Trump said in April that he’s seeking to improve the ACA, rather than eliminating it wholesale — though he has never explicitly shared plans for improving the program.

Biden has frequently pledged to protect the Affordable Care Act, making health care affordability a central part of his pitch to voters. The campaign regularly touts health care cost savings for families through his policies, including actions to lower prescription drug costs and cap the price of insulin at $35 a month for seniors.

The ACA’s popularity has only increased since it was enacted in 2010. In January, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services announced that 21.3 million people found used the ACA Health Insurance Marketplaces to find a health care plan in the 2024 open enrollment period. More than five million people are new to the ACA marketplaces, and about 16 million renewed their coverage through the ACA’s provisions.

The campaign — signaling the battleground states it’s focusing on — noted that a potential repeal of the ACA would cause more than 4.1 Michiganders, 2.8 million Arizonans and 4.3 million Georgians with preexisting conditions could lose health care.

The campaign has also promised to roll out support in Wisconsin, Nevada, North Carolina and New Hampshire, targeting "key constituencies" — with a focus on Black and Hispanic communities — and advertising on "high-impact" TV opportunities, with ads placed during the NFL draft, the NCAA basketball tournaments, the Kentucky Derby and the sitcom "Abbott Elementary."

Through the end of March, Biden has had more than twice as much money in his campaign war chest as Trump, raising more than $90 million in March alone. Trump, meanwhile, raised about $65.6 million in March — though the campaign claims to have raised more than $76 million in April, according to a report from The New York Times. 

Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris are going to travel extensively across the country this month, with Biden planning a trip to Wisconsin, followed by trips to Georgia for the commencement at Morehouse College, then Detroit for the NAACP’s Freedom Fund dinner. Harris has also made trips to Atlanta and Detroit, while Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff has a scheduled trip to Atlanta to talk reproductive rights with young men. First Lady Jill Biden also has a trip scheduled to Arizona to mobilize educators for the campaign.

"We think about it as quality at scale — it’s not just enough to make a better contact," Kanninen told reporters. "We know those conversations have to be strong and come from a trusted and credible messenger. Doing this community building takes time — and unfortunately for the Trump campaign, time is running out."

Trump, the Biden-Harris campaign noted, has continued to see large blocks of protest votes registered for Nikki Haley, who suspended her campaign for the GOP’s presidential nomination after Super Tuesday in March.

However, Biden has also faced discontent within his own ranks, in the form of tens of thousands of "uncommitted," blank, or similar protest votes in Democratic Party primary elections. So far, 27 delegates to the Democratic National Convention are allocated as "uncommitted."

Though both of the presumed nominees have faced challenges within their own parties, a CNN poll found that Trump has seen approval ratings for his term in office improve over the past three-plus years, from 55% of those polled considering his presidency a failure in early 2021, to 55% of those polled viewing it as a success.

"There's no question there's going to be a close election. We've said that and have reiterated time and again, and it's going to take all of us coming together to defeat Trump again," said Principal deputy Campaign Manager Quinten Fulks. "The best predictor of how voters are feeling is how they're voting for Joe Biden and we see strong support for President Biden across the diverse states in the primaries."