Former Bush Aide Helps Gain Voters For Biden By Spending Millions Targeting “soft” Republicans

The Miami Hearld reports: 

A group of Republicans who want to rid their party of President Donald Trump is making a hefty investment to turn Florida blue.

And they have help from one of ex-Florida Gov. Jeb Bush’s former top political strategists.

Officials with Republican Voters Against Trump, a national super PAC, said Monday they would begin a campaign aimed at persuading politically moderate Floridians to back Joe Biden, hopeful that the support of those voters can swing the battleground state — and possibly the presidency — toward the Democratic presidential candidate this fall.

The effort, dubbed “Project Orange Crush,” is expected to spend $8 million to $10 million over the next two months, officials with the group say, and will include TV, social media, and digital ads. It will target nearly a half-million voters in the state, including independents and moderate Republicans who are wary of Trump but have not yet committed to voting for Biden.

“Our plan is to surgically target the key 450,000 Independents and soft Republicans who will decide the election,” said a memo from the group, obtained by the Miami Herald.

Let's see what Breitbart has to say: 

The former Bush consultants’ involvement in helping to elect Biden comes as hundreds of former staffers for Mitt Romney, John McCain, and George W. Bush have signed onto initiatives to defeat Trump in the November 3 election.

Also involved are former Department of Homeland Security (DHS) officials, Miles Taylor and Elizabeth Neumann, who both worked for former DHS Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen in the Trump administration. Breitbart News first named the two officials as opponents of the president in an exclusive report on the agency’s personnel in May 2019.

The Republican establishment, based almost exclusively in Washington, DC, and made up of consultants, donors, and political operatives, has been opposed to Trump’s economic nationalist agenda since the 2015 GOP presidential primary when they unsuccessfully attempted to stop him.

The New York Post also shared more infomation about the the polls:

“Florida is a strong hedge against any potential Trump comeback [in the] industrial Midwest,” the memo said.

Digital ads are expected to begin appearing this week, with TV ads beginning mid-month.

The RealClearPolitics index of polls shows Biden with a 3.7 percentage-point lead over Trump in Florida.

Trump won Florida in 2016, besting Hillary Clinton 48.6 percent to 47.4 percent.

The New York Times shared some in-depth infomation:

Earlier this month, the organization unveiled a video featuring Miles Taylor, a former senior official at the Department of Homeland Security under Mr. Trump, detailing what he called “dangerous” and “terrifying” behavior by the president.

The group’s strategists explained their choice to focus on Florida in a memo: If Mr. Biden were to capture the state’s 29 electoral votes, he would likely need to win only one other major battleground state, such as Michigan or Wisconsin, to deny Mr. Trump a second term. Their campaign is aimed at about 450,000 Floridians in the political middle who they believe are capable of deciding the race.

While some Democrats have grown frustrated with Florida because of the high cost of campaigning there and its persistent tilt to the right in state-level elections, the memo argued that Florida could help counter Mr. Trump’s efforts to polarize the Midwestern states along purely racial lines.

“It is no secret that Trump will use reckless and racially inflammatory language and grievance politics to try to rally his voters,” the memo said, adding, “Unlike those states, with large majority white populations, Florida’s electorate is far more diverse.”

The group said it would use a mix of television and online advertising, and Mr. Murphy said radio and direct-mail advertising would also be in the mix. The ads are slated to start after Labor Day.

“What we are going to do is go right at the suburbanites,” Mr. Murphy said, “and surround them.”