The Harris-Walz campaign continues to double down on claims that Project 2025 threatens Black Americans, connecting Donald Trump to the conservative agenda that they say he would move forward with if elected to serve a second term.
In an ad titled “Backwards”, the campaign lays out “Trump’s extreme plans and the devastating impact they would have on Black Americans,” according to a press release from the Harris-Walz campaign. The ad accuses Trump of planning to strip away voting rights, eliminate the U.S. Department of Education, harm women’s reproductive rights and more.
“Trump’s Project 2025 agenda will give him unchecked political power with no guardrails, and it would take Black America backwards,” the narrator says in the ad. “Project 2025 would strip away our voting rights protections, and it eliminates the Department of Education. It would also require states to monitor women’s pregnancies. It bans abortion and would rip away health coverage for millions.”
However, Trump has repeatedly downplayed the claims about implementing Project 2025, saying he’s unfamiliar with it and calling it extremely conservative. Democrats continue to link him to the conservative agenda. Some of the authors of it have worked for the Trump administration, according to several news sources.
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During the first presidential debate with Harris, Trump attempted to cast Project 2025 as full of “some ideas, I guess, some good, some bad,” while also claiming “I haven’t read it. I don’t want to read it.”
A campaign official for Democrats Kamala Harris and Tim Walz alleged that the former president doesn’t care about Black people. “Donald Trump’s Project 2025 makes one thing clear to Black America: he doesn’t give a damn about us,” said Quentin Fulks, principal deputy campaign manager for the Harris-Walz campaign.
“This campaign is going to make Trump defend his indefensible Project 2025 and ensure the key coalitions this campaign needs to win in November know exactly how his extreme agenda will take their communities backwards,” Fulks added.
This is the campaign’s second ad that links Trump to Project 2025, part of the Harris-Walz campaign’s $370 million spending plan on digital and television advertising between Labor Day and Election Day. It aims to target Black people in battlegrounds markets.
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According to the campaign press release, the ad aired “during high-viewership sporting events in battleground states” including the college football game between Michigan and Texas game on September 7, and the Atlanta Falcons game against the Pittsburgh Steelers on September 8.
Also, the ad has been running during television shows that have programming aimed at Black viewers, including daytime shows like “Sherri”, “The Jennifer Hudson Show” and “The Today Show”.
The new ads come as both Harris and Walz have been on a campaign blitz, traversing the nation with rallies and events to amplify their vision for the country, while warning of the threat the Tump-Vance ticket poses on democracy.
Trump and his running mate, J.D. Vance, have been nonstop on the campaign trail as well. They continue to claim Trump’s policies serve Black Americans better than Harris’ plan for minorities.
“The more Americans learn about Trump’s Project 2025 agenda, the more unpopular it gets,” the Harris-Walz campaign said in a statement. “Recent polls found that between 70 and 80 percent of Americans had already heard about Project 2025.”
Meanwhile, polls show that nearly 78 percent of Americans have at least heard about Project 2025, even if they are not fully aware of what it entails, the Hill reported.
A CNN report found a minimum of 140 people who had been part of the Trump administration were involved in the 900-page conservative agenda.
Spearheaded by the Heritage Foundation, the conservative blueprint includes policy suggestions on various issues, such as government spending, border security and restructuring or eliminating some federal agencies. The project also emphasizes reducing the size of the federal government, increasing accountability, and promoting conservative values.
In June, the Trump campaign launched a coalition to reach Black voters. The “Black Americans for Trump” held a community roundtable at the predominantly Black 180 Church in Detroit, where he was joined by two popular Black Republicans — Florida Rep. Byron Donalds and former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson, according to CNN.
