Warren debuts new ads in late 'electability' push
January 31, 2020
Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s presidential campaign has begun to air two new ads on television and online, using the run-up to Monday's Iowa caucuses to make a closing pitch focused on electability.
The ads argue that the Massachusetts senator is the candidate best equipped to unite the Democratic Party next fall and seek to address the fear among voters that a woman can’t win because of entrenched sexism.
The ads cast Warren as a unity candidate by reminding voters about the divisive 2016 Democratic primary and interviewing Warren supporters who caucused for Sen. Bernie Sanders and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton four years ago.
“We can’t afford a fractured party in 2020,” the ad begins, with Antonio from Clive, Iowa speaking to the camera.
“In 2016, I caucused for Hillary,” says Bridget from Waterloo, Iowa.
“I was for Bernie,” says Antonio.
“In 2020, the person that can unite the party is Elizabeth Warren,” says Bridget.
The campaign will also begin running an ad in New Hampshire with a similar unity theme along with former Clinton and Sanders voters expressing their support for Warren. “Elizabeth Warren is not afraid to speak truth to power. If we have the courage to unite behind the best candidate, we will win,” says a male Warren supporter who voted for Sanders in 2016.
The ads are part of a broader effort in the final weeks by Warren to convince voters that she is best positioned to take on Donald Trump in the fall. Rivals former Vice President Joe Biden and Sanders have been emphasizing electability far longer than Warren and polls show them ahead of her on the metric.
Warren mostly did not engage in such process arguments in 2019 — focusing instead on her biography and laundry list of policy proposals. Although people in her orbit long felt the best way to beat back electability concerns was to begin winning early contests, Warren's new ads suggest the campaign saw a need to make up ground on that question in order to convince Iowans to back her.
Asked during a tele-town hall with Iowans Tuesday night what should be the message to voters in the final days, Warren immediately pivoted to electability. “She's our best chance to win. In November, she's the one,” she said. The campaign also began running an ad in Iowa this month suggesting that Trump is nervous about facing her.
Plus, she has tried to tackle voter concerns about sexism making it harder for her to win in November. “Women win,” she has taken to saying, citing the record number of Democratic women who won in the 2018 midterms.
As with her electability argument, the Warren campaign is also rolling out an ad in Iowa insisting that a woman could win in 2020. “To people that say a woman can’t win, I say nonsense,” says Stephen from Waukon, Iowa, an older man who voted for Trump in 2016.
“I believe a woman can beat Trump and I believe Elizabeth is that woman.”
Source: https://www.politico.com/
