Harris rolls out economic ads for Asian American voters 

The Harris campaign is rolling out an ad featuring Asian American voters in Nevada supporting Vice President Harris’s economic platform.

The ad is seen as a concerted effort to mobilize the key voting bloc, which supports Harris by a 2-to-1 margin, according to recent polling.

“While Trump fueled discrimination against Asian-owned businesses and nearly doubled the Asian American unemployment rate, Vice President Kamala Harris has delivered record support to Asian American entrepreneurs while spurring historic small business and job growth,” said Andrew Peng, the campaign’s Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander spokesperson.

“As President, her top priority will be to lower costs and build an Opportunity Economy where everyone has a chance to compete and succeed,” he added.

In the ad, five members of the Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander community in Nevada will make the case to voters that former President Trump has a “plan for himself,” while “Kamala Harris has a plan for the economy” by “lowering the price of housing,” “banning price gouging on groceries” and “tax cuts for new businesses.” 

The Harris campaign recently unveiled plans to cut unnecessary red tape to make it easier for small businesses to file taxes. The Democratic nominee has also set a goal of 25 million new business applications in her first term if elected in November and plans to provide low, no-interest loans to small businesses.

There are 1.3 million eligible Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander voters in critical battleground states, including Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. This ad buy is part of the larger $370 million in ads the campaign has reserved through Election Day.

The campaign is also rolling out a Nevada-specific ad focusing on Harris’s pledge to end taxes on tips, a goal she seemingly shares with Trump. The Silver State has a large service-based economy.

Winning over Asian American voters in Nevada is a “key part” of the campaign’s strategy to win the battleground state, which has a population of close to 12 percent Asian Americans. 

This media blitz is also part of a larger campaign effort to reach the nation’s fastest-growing demographic. 

That push includes hiring staff focused on Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander voters in each swing state, a fact sheet for this voting bloc, and an ad campaign targeting ethnically based newspapers, TV stations and radio in swing states. 

According to a Harris spokesperson, the campaign also plans to roll out a mailer campaign through the end of the election cycle, targeting Asian American voters in swing states. 

The Harris campaign is not the only group rolling out ads targeting the group of voters. 

On Friday, Indian Impact Fund, in partnership with Future Forward leaders, announced a $3.5 million ad buy targeting South Asian voters. Indian Impact’s blitz is the largest ad buy targeting Asian American voters in the nation’s history. 

“South Asian and Asian American voters are a key part of the coalition that will elect Kamala Harris,” Chauncey McLean, president of Future Forward, wrote to The Hill. “These 1.3 million voters across the battleground will know what’s at stake and the choice we have to make. 

These ads will air in swing states like Pennsylvania, Michigan, North Carolina and Georgia through Election Day and focus on the economy, abortion rights, and supporting caregivers. 

“It’s a choice between Donald Trump’s vision of an economy that rewards people for already being rich or Kamala Harris’s vision where working people have a chance for economic security, access to healthcare, and a secure retirement,” McLean wrote.