MILWAUKEE — Anybody who has driven around Milwaukee lately has probably noticed a lot of political ads, from buses to billboards, as Republicans get ready to hold their presidential nominating convention next week.
For those opposed to the party’s presumptive nominee, it is a big opportunity to make their voices heard.
Republican Voters Against Trump (RVAT) spent $300,000 on a swing state ad campaign that included 15 billboards around Milwaukee during the convention, as well as streaming TV and cable news spots that will air in Wisconsin, Michigan, Arizona and Pennsylvania.
Steve Clark from Madison, Wis., is among the faces of real voters included in the campaign.
“Here I am, my 15 minutes of fame that Andy Warhol guaranteed me, and I’m 70-years-old, so why store them up,” Clark said.
RVAT launched its largest campaign of the cycle, and the first one voters will see when former President Donald Trump is officially nominated next week.
“It’s a different kind of Trump derangement syndrome that is permeating the country and there’s something wrong going on,” Clark explained. “Their world is alternative facts, and you just can’t keep doing that, and that troubled me a lot. And then with the world blowing up like it is, I just don’t trust Trump to face up to what’s going on in the world today.”
Clark didn’t vote for Trump in 2016 but changed his mind in 2020, which is something he said he won’t do again. He described it as a choice that amounts to a principled nonvote.
“I will not vote. You know, if it’s between the two of them, I will let people know I am disgruntled and I’m not going to make a decision between the two,” Clark added. “The heck with ‘em.”
Meanwhile, Democrats have taken a more mobile approach and plan to use Milwaukee city buses to bring President Joe Biden’s message to voters.
“The buses might be confined to the City of Milwaukee, but the issues that are talked about on these ads on the side of buses impact all Wisconsinites,” Democratic National Committee Executive Director Sam Cornale explained.
In total, 57 buses will feature one of seven different designs.
“The ability to make ends meet, to afford prescription drugs, health care costs that [won’t] bankrupt you, the ability to have a roof over your head with a mortgage that won’t go underwater, to control your own body and your life and livelihood, that’s what’s at stake in this election,” Cornale explained. “Those issues aren’t just Milwaukee issues. Those are fundamentally Wisconsin issues.”