campaign

Mitt Romney 2012 campaign veterans backing Joe Biden over Donald Trump

Veterans of Mitt Romney’s 2012 presidential campaign are eyeing an alliance with Joseph R. Biden, looking to make a splash in announcing they have turned their backs on the Republican Party this year and will support the presumptive Democratic nominee instead. Micah Spangler, who was a staffer in southern Florida for the Republican Party during…

Micah Spangler, who was a staffer in southern Florida for the Republican Party during the race, told fellow campaign veterans in emails Friday and over the weekend that he is working with the Biden team “to cultivate a network of Romney alums that want to help elect Joe in November.”

In a separate email to The Washington Times, he said he has received an outpouring of support over the first few days but wouldn’t disclose what motivated him to flip.

“Dozens and dozens of Romney 2012 staffers have ‘signed up’ — and there’s plenty more outreach to do,” he said in the email.

But some Romney campaign folks were indignant at the idea that anyone would leap from Mr. Romney to Mr. Biden, who as vice president was on the ticket in 2012 running against Mr. Romney.

“I wish my former Romney teammates no personal ill-will. But I question the patriotism and wisdom of supporting Joe Biden, who would be a cultural and economic disaster for the country,” said Brett Doster, who was a senior adviser for Mr. Romney’s Florida effort in 2012. “The Biden leftists can’t wait to flush free markets, the Constitution and unborn babies all down the same socialist sewage pipe.”

Andrew M. Bonderud, a lawyer who worked on the Romney campaign in Florida, said he didn’t remember Mr. Spangler but figured he was “probably a bit of an opportunist,” looking to capitalize on the possibility of a Biden victory.

“I think it’s madness,” he said. “I suspect it’s going to have a small audience. Most of the people with whom I worked on the Romney campaign are supporting Trump.”

What the effort does, though, is put Mr. Romney in a tricky spot.

He was the 2012 Republican nominee who lost his bid to unseat President Obama in an election his party thought was winnable.

He won a Senate seat from Utah in 2018 and in February became the first senator in history to vote to convict and remove a president of his own party, siding with Democrats in their impeachment effort.

He has been public about withholding support from President Trump in 2016 and said he wrote in his wife, Ann, on his ballot.

His office didn’t respond to multiple requests for comment, including whether he disavowed the push to use his name to back Mr. Biden.

It’s unlikely the Romney-to-Biden effort will sway self-identified Republicans. Gallup’s latest polling shows the president has 85% approval in his party, though that is down from 92% in early May.

Mr. Romney had 96% support of Republicans in Gallup’s final survey before the 2012 election.

A more likely target for the Romney flippers are independents or any voters who identified as Republican a decade ago but no longer do.

It’s rare, but not unheard of, for a sitting member of Congress to support the opposing party’s nominee.

Sen. Zell Miller, Georgia Democrat, did so in 2004 and even spoke at the Republican National Convention to endorse President George W. Bush.

Some of Mr. Romney’s top political advisers reached by The Times said they hadn’t been contacted by the pro-Biden effort.

Mr. Trump has run hot and cold on Mr. Romney, mocking him for his 2012 loss, backing him for his 2018 Senate run and labeling him a “loser” as Mr. Romney’s criticism intensified this year.

The Biden campaign didn’t respond to a request for comment.

Mr. Spangler is now director of advocacy at the United Nations Association.

During the 2012 campaign, the Republican Party of Florida paid him as part of the joint victory effort, beginning in July. He earned $2,500 a month, according to Federal Election Commission spending records.

The Washington Times asked him what spurred his turn away from the Republican Party and whether it was related to Mr. Trump, but he did not respond to those questions. Instead, he celebrated the reaction he said he has received.

“At first, I honestly wasn’t sure what sort of responses (if any) I’d receive but over the last 72 hours, there’s been an outpouring of support across all sectors of the campaign,” he wrote.

campaign

Trump campaign releases new ads on ‘defining issue’ of the economy, says Biden would kill recovery

The Trump campaign released two new TV ads on Thursday in 10 battleground states, an eight-figure buy highlighting the president’s economic record and contrasting it with Democrat Joseph R. Biden’s “job-killing” proposals. Campaign officials said the economy will be the “defining issue” of the race over the final six weeks. One advertisement features Americans discussing…

Campaign officials said the economy will be the “defining issue” of the race over the final six weeks.

One advertisement features Americans discussing their belief that Mr. Trump’s policies are right for the country and their distrust of Mr. Biden. The second features a business owner who credits the president for his firm’s success and talks about the former vice president’s record of “coddling” China to benefit his own family.

“President Trump built the world’s best economy once and is already doing it a second time,” the Trump campaign said. “As vice president, Joe Biden oversaw the worst economic recovery since the Great Depression and today proposes to raise taxes by $4 trillion, killing the economic comeback underway.”

The Trump campaign increased its television advertising buy by 50 percent this week in swing states with early voting and expanded its national cable buy. The ads are running on national cable, and local broadcast and cable in North Carolina, Florida, Georgia, Michigan, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Arizona, Pennsylvania, the 2nd Congressional District of Nebraska and the 2nd Congressional District of Maine.

The Trump campaign also said it’s expanding existing urban radio ad buys to include Pennsylvania markets.

Biden

Biden campaign ads run on 9/11 despite pledge to suspend them

The Biden campaign and a Democratic super PAC were still airing TV ads on Friday, despite the campaign’s pledge to halt political ads in observance of the 9/11 anniversary. At least 10 pro-Biden and anti-Trump ads aired in Minnesota and Wisconsin Friday morning on NBC, ABC and CBS affiliates, the Trump campaign said. One Biden…

The Biden campaign and a Democratic super PAC were still airing TV ads on Friday, despite the campaign’s pledge to halt political ads in observance of the 9/11 anniversary.

At least 10 pro-Biden and anti-Trump ads aired in Minnesota and Wisconsin Friday morning on NBC, ABC and CBS affiliates, the Trump campaign said. One Biden ad attacked President Trump on Social Security; an ad from the American Bridge PAC features an Army veteran blaming Mr. Trump for urban rioting.

As Mr. Biden traveled to New York Friday morning to attend a 9/11 ceremony, he claimed that his campaign had suspended advertising.

“We took all our advertising down. It’s a solemn day. That’s how we’re going to keep it,” Mr. Biden told reporters.

A Biden campaign official said some ads aired accidentally.

“Our clear intentions are to suspend advertising today,” the official said on condition of anonymity. “This was an inadvertent airing and we are reaching out to the affiliate stations for an explanation and to remedy.”

The Trump campaign has not suspended its advertising; a campaign official said a Trump ad running on Friday is “patriotic” about the “Great American comeback.” The official also noted that people are voting around the country already.

The official also said that the campaigns of former President Barack Obama and candidates Hillary Clinton and Mitt Romney also kept their ads on the air on 9/11.

campaign

Trump campaign, RNC raise $210 million in August

President Trump’s campaign and the Republican National Committee teamed up to raise $210 million in August, pulling in a little more than half of the $365 million haul for Joseph R. Biden and the Democrats. The RNC said on Wednesday that they raised $76 million over the course of the four-day GOP convention last month.…

The RNC said on Wednesday that they raised $76 million over the course of the four-day GOP convention last month.

Trump campaign manager Bill Stepien said Republicans are focused on putting money into a “muscular field operation and ground game,” while Mr. Biden’s team is focused mainly on TV.

“We like our strategy better,” Mr. Stepien said. “The Trump campaign will have all the resources we need to spread the message of President Trump’s incredible record of achievement, on the ground and on the air, and define Joe Biden as a tool of the radical left.”

The RNC said Democrats relied in part on “Hollywood celebrities” and gimmicks to juice their fundraising numbers.

The Biden campaign outpaced Mr. Trump’s team on the television airwaves last month, though the Trump campaign is pushing ahead with a new TV effort in a handful of battleground states this week.

Mr. Trump said this week he’s prepared to spend his own money if he needs to do so.

Those comments came after the New York Times published a story suggesting that the president’s campaign managed to blow a sizable cash edge he had enjoyed over Mr. Biden earlier this year with a number of questionable spending decisions.