Pro-Biden super PAC launches $10 million campaign ahead of Democratic convention

The main super PAC supporting Joe Biden’s presidential bid is launching a $10 million effort to boost the former vice president ahead of the Democratic National Convention in August. 

Unite the Country, the outside group started by a former aide to Biden last fall, said that the campaign will include $10 million in television ads and a multimillion-dollar digital program leading up to the convention.

The group will begin running its first ad in the campaign on Friday in battleground state media markets and nationally. The spot features Biden speaking about his upbringing in a working-class family and highlights the former vice president’s work on the 2009 economic recovery act. 

The eight-figure investment comes as President Trump’s reelection campaign prepares to spend $10 million on television and digital ads attacking Biden.

“Voters see the disastrous presidency of Donald Trump every single day as he endangers lives and weakens our economy. It’s time for them to hear the story of Joe Biden and his leadership during tough economic times,” Steve Schale, the CEO of Unite the Country, said in a statement. 

“Unite the Country successfully helped tell Joe Biden’s story during the primary and we will continue to do so through November.”  

The $10 million effort by the pro-Biden super PAC is intended to counter Trump’s broadside against the former vice president by highlighting his work during the financial crisis after becoming vice president in 2009, including the Obama administration’s efforts to save the U.S. auto industry from collapse.

The ad campaign comes as the world faces even deeper economic turmoil amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. The Labor Department said on Friday that the economy shed more than 20.5 million jobs in April, bringing the unemployment rate to 14.7 percent — its highest level since the Great Depression.