A super PAC behind Donald Trump is directing its first advertising dollars toward wooing Bernie Sanders supporters on the grounds of the Democratic National Convention.
The first paid ad from Defeat Crooked Hillary PAC, funded by $2 million from Republican megadonor Bob Mercer, is appearing on the smartphones of Sanders supporters at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia. It will also target Sanders activists in eight other states, said the super PAC’s Kristina Hernandez.
The group is organized around opposing Clinton rather than explicitly boosting Trump.
The buy — estimated by the group to be between $300,000 and $400,000 — uses data like internet history, location, and past purchases to help determine who maybe be inclined to back Sanders and then presents a message that Trump himself has been delivering on the stump.
“Hillary’s Washington insiders rigged the system. Bernie never had a chance,” the 15-second spot goes, recounting Clinton’s political alliance with now-ousted DNC chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz. “More corruption by Hillary and her cronies. Now Hillary hires her DNC chair and wants you to just roll over.”
The spot is “geo-fenced” to appear at the DNC, where hundreds of Sanders supporters have at times disrupted proceedings propelled by their lukewarm support for Clinton.
It is also delivered to Sanders backers in Florida, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Nevada, Virginia, Colorado, Iowa and New Hampshire.
The super PAC’s message is similar to the message in an ad pushed by a rival pro-Trump group earlier this week. The video from that super PAC, Rebuilding America Now, features 30 seconds of unaltered Sanders railing on Clinton for not releasing her Wall Street speech transcripts.
