A subject that seems to interest American voters little but Donald Trump a lot. The Republican presidential candidate’s campaign team and his supporters spent tens of millions of dollars on anti-trans and anti-LGBTQ advertisements according to the American press.
According to the ABCNews channelmore than $21 million has been spent as of October 9. That’s almost a third of the approximately $66 million spent on television advertising.
CBS estimates for its part that the Donald Trump campaign invested more than 19 million dollars for two advertisements which have been broadcast on television nearly 55,000 times since October 1. His main supporting political action committee, Make America Great Again Inc, reportedly spent more than $1.1 million.
These ads air in all key states and during NFL and college football games. They are even the two most viewed Donald Trump advertisements during this match, according to the company AdImpact.
Kamala Harris targeted by an ad
In these spots Donald Trump attacks his rival, Kamala Harris, who in 2019 said she supported transgender prisoners’ access to gender reassignment surgery and its financing. “Kamala is for them”, we can read. “Trump is for you.”
The Democratic candidate was re-questioned on this subject in mid-October during an interview with Fox News.
“I will respect the law. And it is a law that Donald Trump has indeed respected,” she said. “I think, frankly, this Trump campaign ad is a bit like throwing rocks when you live in a glass house.”
“Under the Donald Trump administration, these surgeries were available to people incarcerated in the federal prison system due to medical necessity,” Kamala Harris then added, citing a public report.
In a document from Federal Bureau of Prisons dated 2018 – during the presidency of Donald Trump – it is written that “medical care” for transgender people could “include pharmaceutical interventions” or even “surgery (if the individualized assessment indicates that surgical intervention is possible )”.
Kamala Harris estimated on Fox News that if the Republican candidate spent so much on these advertisements, it is to “create a feeling of fear among voters, because he actually has no plan for this election which focuses on needs of the American people.
The least important subject of the presidential election for voters
Transgender issues are of little interest to American voters according to a survey by Gallup Institute. Only 38% of voters said transgender rights were extremely or very important to their vote choice in November. Of the 22 issues proposed, transgender rights are considered the least important in this election. It is the economy which is seen as the priority according to this survey.
According to Cameron Shelton, professor of political economy at California’s Claremont McKenna College, interviewed by CBS, these political ads generally do not persuade voters but rather confirm pre-existing feelings that could fuel participation.
Republicans are “trying to find an issue where the majority is on their side,” said the latter, who has studied the impact of campaign ads in previous election cycles. “What they’re trying to say is, ‘Hey, forget these other things we don’t agree on. If I can remind you that you agree with me on transgender rights.’ .. So maybe this will trickle down.”
Donald Trump, who repeated various anti-trans messages during his election campaign, is not the only candidate to use these transphobic ads. Republican candidates for the senatorial elections, which will also take place on November 5, 2024, are making a similar bet.
