Biden launches his first TV ad just hours after entering race

WASHINGTON - United States President Joe Biden launched the first television ad of

his newly launched re-election campaign

on Wednesday, backed by a first-week expenditure of more than US$250,000 (S$333,000) – mostly in six battleground states.

The 90-second ad

– extraordinarily long in modern television advertising – comes 24 hours after he made his candidacy official with an online video. The paid ad echoes many of the themes of that announcement, contrasting Mr Biden’s themes of democracy and freedom with scenes from the 2021 US Capitol assault that aimed to keep former president Donald Trump in power.

“As the sun rises, we raise the flag – a symbol of all that we hold most dear as Americans. Courage, opportunity, democracy, freedom,” the ad’s narrator says. “Joe Biden is running for re-election to make certain that the sun will not set on this flag. The promise of American democracy will not break.”

A candidate’s first ad often attempts to set a tone for the rest of the campaign, and Mr Biden’s is focused on Trump, whom polls show is the front runner for the Republican presidential nomination and who also released his first ad of the cycle on Wednesday.

Trump’s 60-second ad attacks his presumptive primary rival, Mr Ron DeSantis, for disloyalty after taking Trump’s support to run for governor of Florida only to then flirt with a presidential run. “Unfortunately, instead of being grateful, DeSantis is now attacking the very man who saved his career. Isn’t it time DeSantis remembers how he got to where he is?”

Trump’s message is backed with a much smaller US$64,000 purchase of time on the Democrat-friendly cable network MSNBC and the conservative NewsMax TV, according to data from AdImpact, an ad-tracking firm.

The first foray of the marquee candidates into the advertising campaign follows millions in early spending by Republican super-PACs (political action committees), which can raise unlimited money from donors as long as they do not coordinate with the campaigns. Super-PACs backing either Trump or Mr DeSantis have run attack ads against the two in recent weeks. 

But unlike his Republican rivals, Mr Biden has a virtually guaranteed free pass to the general election, allowing him to focus on states most important to the electoral college. 

His first spending gives a glimpse into an early campaign strategy that will focus on battleground states such as Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Nevada, Arizona, Michigan and Georgia. In many of those states, he is focusing on small markets like Tucson, Arizona; Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania; Green Bay, Wisconsin; and Flint, Michigan.

The Biden campaign said it plans to spend more than US$1 million in the first two weeks of his campaign, including a second ad beginning next week. BLOOMBERG