Hoping to get out the Black vote, Biden-Harris campaign films new national ad in NC
Three new ads for the Joe Biden and Kamala Harris campaign targeting Black voters in North Carolina and nationally were filmed in a Durham barbershop and show some familiar faces.
Two shorter advertisements will air in North Carolina, while a longer ad will air nationally.
The ads are part of a $280 million television and digital ad campaign in battleground states, according to the Biden campaign.
North Carolina is considered a battleground state whose voters previously went for Republican President Donald Trump and Democratic President Barack Obama. In 2016, North Carolina voters chose Trump as well as Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper.
There are 2.5 million Democrats and 2.1 million Republicans registered to vote in North Carolina, according to the state Board of Elections. Nearly 1.5 million North Carolina voters are Black.
State Rep. Zack Hawkins, a Durham Democrat, is in the ads filmed in 360 Barber Shop on Roxboro Street in the historic Hayti area of the city just outside downtown.
Hawkins and others are all wearing masks and sitting in barbershop chairs. He is wearing a mask that says “Good Trouble,” which is a phrase the late civil rights leader and U.S. Rep. John Lewis was known for.
In one of three commercials in the barbershop, the men talk about getting out the vote.
“You cannot sit on the sidelines. You gotta get in the game,” Hawkins says.
Hawkins is in his first term in the General Assembly and running for reelection this year. Just first names of the men featured in the ad are shown on screen.
Also in the video are UNC-Chapel Hill student Greear Webb, Durham community organizer David Dixon, Wake Forest attorney Keith Shackleford, Raleigh attorney Antoine Marshall, campaign adviser Sean Grier and Cary accountant Nate Branscomb.
Marshall, who is also a former legislative candidate, said in a phone interview Sunday that turnout is key because African American voters skew heavily Democratic.
He wanted to be in the ad after being asked because he’s already politically active and wanted to help with outreach, Marshall ran unsuccessfully in the state House District 33 primary earlier this year.
“I believe in the government’s ability to make lives better, especially in the Black community,” he said. Marshall said it is a double-edged sword, though, because government can do both good and harm to the Black community.
In the long version of the ad, which will run on television nationally, there is a clip of President Donald Trump saying that he has done more for African Americans than President Abraham Lincoln. Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation during the Civil War, declaring an end to slavery in the Confederacy.
In the video, the men in the barbershop laugh.
“It’s a joke,” Marshall said in the interview, noting Trump administration policies and that Trump’s cabinet is mostly white.
“When you look at representation, who’s in the room when you’re making these [political] decisions?” Marshall asked.
He said the “world of Black politics is pretty small” and he knew or knew of others in the ads. Marshall said that beyond voting for Biden and Harris, he hopes Black voters will look at all the downballot races, too.
North Carolina’s entire 170-member legislature is up for election this fall, as are governor and other statewide offices.
Biden, Harris visits to Triangle
Biden was last in the Triangle in late February, the day after the South Carolina primary and before North Carolina’s primary led to his nomination as the Democratic presidential candidate.
Biden spoke at St. Augustine’s University, an HBCU in Raleigh. He hoped to appeal to Black voters, who were credited with his South Carolina primary win.
Biden also campaigned in the Triangle in 2019, in Durham, at a historically Black high school, Hillside High School. During that campaign speech, he highlighted Durham’s history of accomplishments by its Black community. Durham’s population has been about evenly split between Black and white residents.
For more North Carolina government and politics news, listen to the Domecast politics podcast from The News & Observer and the NC Insider. You can find it on Megaphone, Apple Podcasts, iHeartRadio, Stitcher or wherever you get your podcasts.
This story was originally published September 14, 2020 at 8:00 AM.
.jpg)