Struggling in the polls, Elizabeth Warren launches first SC-wide radio ad
In her bid to win the state’s Democratic presidential primary, U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren is making her first statewide radio ad buy in South Carolina in a roughly one-minute clip titled, “Not Afraid.”
The ad started Monday, hitting eight markets, including markets in Augusta and Savannah, Georgia — a Super Tuesday state.
“I’m Elizabeth Warren. I’m running for president, and I approve this message because I want you to know that I’m not afraid to stand up to billionaires and corrupt politicians,” Warren says in the radio ad.
“In fact, I’ve been doing it for years. After Wall Street crashed our economy in 2008, I went to Washington and confronted the broken system head on. I worked with President (Barack) Obama to create the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau — America’s first consumer watchdog to hold the big banks accountable. And when Republican senators tried to sabotage the reforms we made, I ran against one of them and beat him. I’m in this fight for a democracy that works for everyone. That’s why I’m running for president.”
The 2020 Democratic presidential hopeful has not made any other statewide ad buys in the “First in the South” presidential primary state, instead focusing her campaign on targeted digital ad buys, opening 11 offices and hiring staff — now more than 40 on the ground in South Carolina.
Meanwhile, her position in the latest polls have put her in fourth place while challengers around her, including billionaire Tom Steyer who has dropped millions into South Carolina advertisements, have seen incremental climbs.
Warren last visited South Carolina for the 20th anniversary of King Day at the Dome, a march and program at the State House that honors the life of Martin Luther King, Jr. and gives presidential candidates an opportunity to address hundreds, many of whom are black.
African Americans are a key electorate in the state’s Democratic primary, making up two-thirds of the party’s primary voting bloc.
The radio ad could prove another small boost for Warren, who is stuck in Washington, D.C., for President Donald Trump’s impeachment trial in the U.S. Senate and instead has sent surrogates to South Carolina to help her campaign, including U.S. Rep. Ayanna Pressley.
This story was originally published January 28, 2020 at 5:00 AM.
