Biden, Harris celebrate Black History Month with ads touting promises kept

The Biden-Harris campaign is launching a series of radio, print and digital ads targeting Black voters in battleground states. The ads, according to the reelection campaign, will highlight promises President Biden kept to Black Americans over the last four years. 

Two radio ads — “Reflect,” which runs for 30 seconds, and “Remarkable,” which is a minute long — will run Feb. 14-26 in Atlanta, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Milwaukee, Detroit, Phoenix, Raleigh, N.C., and Charlotte, N.C.

The ads play up Black History Month themes by highlighting the history made when Vice President Harris became the first Black female vice president, when Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin became the first African American Pentagon chief, and when Ketanji Brown Jackson became the first Black female Supreme Court justice.

“Black history is American history,” the ads say. “Our sacrifices make this country stronger.”

“Remarkable” goes on to say that under Biden, the Black unemployment rate is the lowest it’s ever been and that more than $130 billion in student loan debt has been forgiven. 

“President Biden and Vice President Harris are delivering on their promises to Black America by ushering in historically low Black unemployment as well as overseeing the fastest creation rate of Black-owned small businesses in decades,” Quentin Fulks, Biden-Harris principal deputy campaign director, said in a statement.

While print ads will run in Black newspapers across battleground states including Georgia, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin and Arizona beginning Feb. 19, the campaign will also air a 15-second digital ad “Possibilities” across streaming platforms during the 2024 NBA x HBCU Classic. 

“Possibilities” will focus on the commitments the administration has made to historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs), including a historic $7 billion investment for campuses, grants and debt relief.

When Biden was elected in 2020, he promised racial justice would be at the forefront of his administration’s agenda. On his first day in office, he signed an executive order to allocate funding to HBCUs and Indigenous tribes as well as new programs to help close racial disparities in job and housing opportunities. 

But Democrats at large have failed to succeed in securing additional protections on voting rights and passing police reform, two issues of top concern for Black Americans. 

These new ads now come at a time when Biden’s and Harris’s approval ratings are falling among Black voters. 

Earlier this month, an AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll found that Biden’s approval rating among Black adults has fallen to 42 percent.

“We know there is more work to do,” Fulks said. “The fundamental choice in this election is between Joe Biden, who wakes up every day thinking about how he can make Americans’ lives better, and Donald Trump, who wakes up every day thinking about how he can make his life better – even if that comes at the expense of hardworking American people.”