Harris campaign rolls out first ad after $200 million cash haul

Vice President Kamala Harris‘s campaign is pushing out its first ad as part of a $50 million buy, a minute-long spot that reintroduces the candidate but also criticizes her opponent, former President Donald Trump.

“This campaign is about who we fight for,” Harris says, using snippets of her speech from her first rally last week in Milwaukee. “We believe in a future where every person has the opportunity not just to get by, but to get ahead. But Donald Trump wants to take our country backward… We are not going back.”

The ad, “Fearless,” is the first spot that will air in battleground states before the Democratic National Convention in Chicago in three weeks on local, national, cable, streaming, and social channels, including during 2024 Paris Olympic Games programming and Love & Hip Hop: Atlanta.

“This $50 million paid media campaign, bolstered by our record-setting fundraising haul and a groundswell of grassroots enthusiasm, is one crucial way we will reach and make our case to the voters who will decide this election,” Harris campaign chairwoman Jen O’Malley Dillon wrote Tuesday in a statement.

In a memo last weekend, Harris campaign communications director Michael Tyler announced Harris had raised $200 million in the week since President Joe Biden confirmed he would no longer seek reelection after pressure from Democrats to step down as the party’s nominee following his first debate against Trump.

A majority of that $200 million was contributed by first-time donors, according to Tyler, in addition to more than 170,000 new people who signed up to become volunteers and supporters organizing grassroots calls. A Monday night Zoom call for “White Dudes for Kamala,” which included a surprise appearance from actor Jeff Bridges, raised $2.5 million alone.

“Meanwhile Donald Trump is scrambling,” Tyler wrote. “He’s scared to debate Vice President Harris. While the Harris coalition is unified and growing, Donald Trump is weighed down by his extensive vulnerabilities, for example, his Friday comments about ending elections in this country. Or his historically unpopular VP pick in JD Vance.”

Trump told Fox News Monday night he would “probably end up debating” and that the head-to-head should be held “before the votes start being cast.”

“So the answer is yes, but I can also make a case for not doing it,” he said.

Trump, who is returning to Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, this weekend after being shot two and a half weeks ago in nearby Butler, also defended his vice presidential nominee, Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH), who has come under scrutiny for claiming the Democratic Party is run by “childless cat ladies” and that parents should have more of a vote than single people.

“The Democrats are good at spinning things differently from what they were,” Trump said. “All he said is he he does like I mean, for him, he likes family. I think a lot of people like family and sometimes it doesn’t work out. And you know why — you don’t meet the right person or you don’t mean any person, but you’re just as good in many cases a lot better than a person that’s in a family situation. But they took it and they spun it differently.”