Club for Growth to unleash new ad blitz hitting Biden day of convention speech

The conservative Club for Growth will roll out a new ad blitz targeting Joe Biden and Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) Thursday, the same day the former vice president is set to give a speech accepting the Democratic Party’s 2020 nomination at its convention. 

The new videos from the group, which are backed by a $5 million buy, will air both on national platforms and in the key swing states of Arizona, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin and will remain up throughout the Republican National Convention next week. 

Club for Growth said the two 30-second ads, obtained exclusively by The Hill, work to “highlight how Biden and Harris’s radical liberal policies will hurt the economy.” The new ad blitz builds on an initial $5 million advertising buy from earlier this month focusing on Biden’s stance on school choice that aired in the same three swing states.

“How would Joe Biden govern? He wouldn’t. The socialist left calls the shots,” a narrator says over pictures of Biden and Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) in the ad titled, “In Charge.”

“Just look at how they bullied him into picking San Francisco liberal Kamala Harris for vice president.”

The ad goes on to claim Harris wants to “end private health insurance” and supports the “radical” Green New Deal, stances Biden has disavowed but Harris endorsed at points during her own presidential bid.

A second ad, which is titled “Drive” and will air in the swing states, warns that Biden will raise taxes and reverse the economy’s slow recovery from the coronavirus pandemic.

“Joe Biden is taking a sharp left turn. Buckle up for his $4 trillion tax hike. Biden’s plan raises taxes on small business, reversing the recovery,” a narrator says, claiming Biden will eliminate oil and gas jobs and “crash” the stock market. “Hit the brakes on Biden. He’ll wreck our economy.”

The ads come as Republicans work to paint Biden and Harris as part of the left flank of the Democratic Party.

Polls have shown the former vice president leading President Trump by double digits nationally and by smaller margins in a number of swing states.

The latest ad blitz also shows that the Club for Growth is working to close the spending gap between GOP outside groups’ work and their Democratic counterparts. Biden still trails Trump in the size of their campaign accounts, but the former vice president has been boosted by outside spending. 

Club for Growth opposed Trump in 2016, but has since morphed into an outside ally. The group has been one of the most prominent conservative groups doling out funds in the 2020 cycle and flexed its financial muscle in down-ballot races, outspending most other GOP outside organizations earlier this year. 

The Biden campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Hill regarding the latest ad blitz.