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Campaign Almanac: ‘Who’s more woke?’ AI-generated ad targets Nikki Haley, Tim Scott
Also, new super PAC ad declares Haley conservative Biden ‘fears most’
A radio ad playing in Iowa uses AI-generated voices representing Nikki Haley and Tim Scott to criticize the two presidential candidates from South Carolina for not being sufficiently conservative.
The ad was produced by the Super PAC Courageous Conservatives PAC and has been running on radio stations across Iowa, according to a news release.
The ad features a narrator proposing questions about various conservative topics to determine “who’s more woke,” which are answered by AI-generated Haley and Scott voices, and then asks listeners to vote in a Twitter poll.
The ad begins with a rapidly spoken disclaimer that says simply, “Celebrity voices AI.”
Haley, the former South Carolina governor and U.N. ambassador, and Scott, a U.S. Senator, are among the Republican candidates for president. Both are among the large pack of candidates that significantly trails former President Donald Trump on Republican presidential primary polling both nationally and in Iowa.
Courageous Conservatives PAC funded ads supporting Texas Republican U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz — the winner of the 2015 Iowa Republican caucuses — in the 2016 presidential primary campaign. The PAC spent more than $186,000 supporting Cruz, according to the money in politics tracker Open Secrets.
The ad also has been airing in South Carolina, home to Haley and Scott and one of the other early-voting states that follows Iowa Republicans’ first-in-the-nation caucuses.
New ad declares Haley candidate Biden ‘fears most’
The super PAC backing Haley’s presidential campaign released a new ad in Iowa and New Hampshire declaring Haley the conservative candidate President Joe Biden “fears most.”
The 30-second ad from Stand for America PAC stems from a quote in Politico’s Playbook newsletter from last month. “If they nominate Nikki Haley, we’re in trouble," a senior Democratic strategist reportedly close with the Biden campaign told Politico.
Haley’s campaign has seized on the quote, framing her as the candidate with the best shot at beating Biden.
The ad highlights Haley's rejection of excessive government spending and unsustainable borrowing by both parties that has ballooned the national debt, and her call for term limits and mental competency tests for politicians older than 75.
The former South Carolina governor has seen a post-debate bump in the polls in Iowa following a strong performance during last month’s first Republican presidential primary debate. Polling conducted for super PAC’s backing former President Donald Trump, who remains the GOP front-runner with a commanding lead over the rest of the GOP field, and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis both show Haley with double-digit support in Iowa and statistically tied with DeSantis in New Hampshire.
Ad highlights DeSantis’ support of ‘deadly force’ against cartels
Never Back Down, the super PAC supporting Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ presidential bid, released a new TV ad highlighting his plans to secure the Southern border, including the use of “deadly force” against Mexican drug cartels.
The video is a part of the super PAC’s recently announced $25 million ad buy, and will begin running this week in Iowa and New Hampshire.
The ad, titled “Stone Cold Dead,” shows Vice President Kamala Harris claiming that “the border is secure” and media reports and clips of the governor touting his plan to secure the U.S.-Mexico border, including a clip of DeSantis from the Aug. 23 Republican presidential primary debate in Milwaukee.
“The cartels are killing tens of thousands of our fellow citizens,” DeSantis said in the clip featured in the ad. “We have to defend our people. We’re going to use force and we’re going to leave them stone-cold dead.”
DeSantis also has lso used the line during campaign stops in Iowa.
Asked how authorities would distinguish cartel members from migrants, DeSantis, in an interview with NBC News’ Dasah Burns, said U.S. agents would have “rules of engagement” similar to police or U.S. forces in war zones like Iraq.
Rising GOP support for the U.S. taking unilateral military action in Mexico against drug cartels has sparked warnings in both countries of derailing decades of commercial and cross-border relations with the United States’ largest trading partner, and could worsen the security situation and trigger a wave of migration in the region.
Reynolds Announces 6th Annual Harvest Festival
Iowa Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds will hold her sixth annual Harvest Festival on Saturday, Oct. 14 at the Iowa State Fair grounds in Des Moines.
Special guests will be announced in the coming weeks, according to her campaign.
“As Iowa's farmers hit the fields for harvest, there is no better time for Iowans to come together and celebrate our great state," Reynolds said in a statement.
The festival will feature family-friendly activities such as live music, pumpkin decorating, balloon animals and barbecue. The program begins at 5:30 p.m. at the Elwell Family Food Center at the State Fairgrounds.
Gazette-Lee Des Moines Bureau
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