Bernie Sanders’ campaign released a series of new ads on Friday that focus more on his platform as a candidate than his background.
The ads, which will run in early voting states, are the first of the campaign voiced by the candidate.
“If you’re doing everything right but find it harder and harder to get by, you’re not alone,” Sanders says in a spot called “Works for All of Us” that will air in Iowa and New Hampshire. “While our people work longer hours for lower wages, almost all new income goes to the top 1 percent. My plan: Make Wall Street banks and the ultra-rich pay their fair share of taxes. Provide living wages for working people. Ensure equal pay for women.”
Sanders then endorses the ads, arguing “we can make a political revolution and make an economy and a democracy that works for all, and not just the powerful few.”
In a similar spot, titled “A Rigged Economy,” Sanders argues the economy is “a system held in place by corrupt politics where Wall Street banks and billionaires buy elections.”
Sanders’ aides have said that the first few months of their campaign were aimed at introducing the independent senator, who was not widely recognized. Now that he has raised his profile, the aides say, it is time for Sanders to tell people what he stands for and outline his platform.
These ads, which come weeks after the Sanders’ campaign released two ads focused on the candidate’s biography, are an attempt to do that.
In addition to the television ads in Iowa and New Hampshire, Sanders’ campaign also announced Friday that it will begin airing radios ads in South Carolina that focus on the candidate’s record on racial equality.
“There’s no president who will fight harder to end institutional racism and reform our broken criminal justice system,” Sanders says in the ad that will start airing next week in Columbia, Florence, Myrtle Beach, Charleston and Greenville.
The ad also mentions the fact that Sanders participated in the March on Washington with the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in 1963.
Sanders will headline a three-day swing through South Carolina and Georgia on Friday with an event in Charleston. On Saturday, Sanders — along with Hillary Clinton — will headline the South Carolina Democratic Party Blue Jamboree in North Charleston.
South Carolina is Sanders’ most dire early state. Most polls show the Vermont senator far behind Clinton, with some polls showing him down as much as 50 points.