Biden campaign goes on air in Nevada for first time

Presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden’s presidential campaign is going up on the airwaves in Nevada, a battleground state that President Trump’s campaign views as a potential expansion opportunity in 2020.

The Biden campaign released a new ad on Monday attacking Trump’s response to the coronavirus and appealing to seniors, who broke for Trump in the 2016 election.

The ad, called “Dignity,” features a woman from Wisconsin tearfully talking about how her grandmother died from COVID-19. The one-minute-long ad will run in the Las Vegas and Reno markets on daytime television to reach older voters. A Spanish-language version will also run in Arizona and Florida.

“She was the most welcoming person you could ever imagine,” the woman says in the ad. “Her home was the safe place. It was difficult to comprehend how quickly everything kind of spiraled downwards. We didn’t even know she had COVID until a week after her passing. The president made a huge mistake in downplaying this virus. There was a lack of leadership, a lack of responsibility and a lack of resources. It felt like our elderly have not been a priority for this administration, that they don’t matter. And I feel like my grandmother didn’t matter.”

Trump carried the oldest subset of voters by about 7 points over Democrat Hillary Clinton in 2016. But polls show Biden running even with Trump and in some cases leading among seniors with 100 days to go before the election.

In addition to the television ad, the Biden campaign is running a short companion ad on YouTube, Facebook and Instagram saying he’ll lower drug costs and expand Medicare.

“Our seniors are being hit the hardest,” Biden says in the digital ad. “Let’s start by caring for our aging parents and loved ones, making their homes safer but more importantly giving them peace of mind, helping them live independently. Everyone is entitled to be treated with dignity.”

The ad buy in Nevada marks the first time the Biden campaign is spending outside of the six core battleground states of Arizona, Florida, North Carolina, Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania.

The Trump campaign has said it intends to compete in Nevada, Maine, New Hampshire and Minnesota — four states that Clinton won narrowly in 2016.

Clinton carried Nevada by 2.5 points, or about 27,000 votes, in 2016. A Republican presidential candidate has not carried Nevada since 2004, when former President George W. Bush won there.