Screenshot of HRC’s “Don’t Get Comfortable” ad – Photo: Human Rights Campaign, via YouTube.
The Human Rights Campaign’s “Equality Votes” PAC has launched a final digital ad and direct mail campaign focusing on voter education and motivating pro-equality voters to the polls as the 2020 Election campaign enters its final three weeks.
The digital ad campaign, comprised of two new video ads, one focusing on educating voters about various options for voting and the importance of making a plan, and the other focusing on holding President Donald Trump, Vice President Mike Pence, and U.S. Senate Republicans accountable for pushing through the nomination of Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court instead of passing financial relief for Americans suffering from the COVID-19 pandemic.
HRC’s final investment is in addition to its initial $1.5 million digital ad reservation announced in September, bringing HRC’s total independent expenditure program spending to $2.7 million this cycle.
The first ad, titled “Urgency” highlights various voting options and urges viewers to make a plan to vote.
The ad, as well as accompanying versions supporting specific HRC-endorsed candidates, will run in 25 targeted congressional districts in Arizona, Colorado, Georgia, Iowa, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas and Wisconsin.
The video will appear on various online and social media platforms, including Facebook, Instagram, Vevo, Hulu, Pandora, and other video or streaming platforms.
Equality Votes PAC has also partnered with Collective Super PAC to provide a $200,000 investment in streaming and terrestrial radio advertising to reach Black voters in Atlanta, Detroit and Milwaukee, and encourage them to vote in this year’s elections.
As part of its direct mail campaign, the LGBTQ rights organization will be sending out mailers on the availability and importance of early voting to 274,000 so-called “Equality Voters” — those for whom a candidate’s position on LGBTQ rights is a deciding factor — in North Carolina, and 75,000 Equality Voters in Maine on behalf of HRC-endorsed U.S. Senate candidates Cal Cunningham and Sara Gideon. The three mail pieces be mailed out over the next week, through Oct. 22.
The second ad,”Don’t Get Comfortable” highlight Senate Republicans’ decision to push through Amy Coney Barrett’s nomination to the Supreme Court, casting Trump’s nominee as a threat to LGBTQ equality, reproductive rights, and the Affordable Care Act.
“Don’t get comfortable,” the narrator intones in the ad. “Our hard-won rights in the courts? They want to chip away at them.”
The ad shows Barrett embracing the ideology of former Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, an opponent of LGBTQ rights.
“Anti-equality senators want to rush through this lifetime appointment instead of prioritizing relief during the pandemic,” the ad says, showing pictures of Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), Joni Ernst (R-Iowa), Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), Martha McSally (R-Ariz.), Cory Gardner (R-Colo.), David Perdue (R-Ga.), Kelly Loeffler (R-Ga.), Steve Daines (R-Mont.), and John Cornyn (R-Texas).
“They are desperate and the clock is ticking. They know they’re losing,” the ad concludes. “Let’s vote them out. Today.”
“Already, over 12 million Equality Voters have requested their ballots for this election and millions more will be turning out to vote by mail, early in-person, or on Election Day. They are voting in record numbers to reject Donald Trump and Mike Pence as well as their enablers in Congress,” HRC Deputy Campaign Director Jonathan Shields said in a statement.
“The Human Rights Campaign’s Equality Votes PAC is investing in its largest effort ever — across 12 states inclusive of 25 competitive congressional districts and 96 state legislative districts — to educate and empower Equality Voters,” Shields added. “Our votes will be counted in contests up and down the ballot and when the results are in — Joe Biden and Kamala Harris will make history as the most pro-equality ticket ever elected.”
The ruling in Tennessee’s gender-affirming care case could unravel key legal wins for transgender Americans as lower courts are told to take another look.
The U.S. Supreme Court has ordered lower federal courts to revisit pro-transgender rulings after siding with Tennessee in a 6-3 decision upholding the state’s ban on gender-affirming care for minors.
In its June 30 ruling, the Court found the law did not discriminate based on sex or transgender status -- and while it did not address other laws affecting transgender Americans, it opened the door for states to impose even broader restrictions on transgender rights and legal protections.
As reported by CNN, Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, and Amy Coney Barrett wrote in concurring opinions that courts should not be required to closely scrutinize laws alleged to discriminate against transgender people.
More than 100 prominent celebrities have signed on to a letter urging President Donald Trump's administration to hold off on implementing budget cuts that would eliminate specialized services for LGBTQ youth who contact the National Suicide and Crisis Lifeline.
Since its launch in 2022, callers to contact the national suicide prevention lifeline by dialing 988 have been given the option of speaking with counselors trained to work with specific populations, from Spanish-language speakers to LGBTQ youth.
The 988 service for LGBTQ youth has received nearly 1.3 million calls, texts, and chat messages since launching three years ago, according to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. In February alone, the program received a daily average of 2,100 crisis contacts, reports The Hill.
Owen McIntire, a 19-year-old from Parkville, Missouri, has pleaded not guilty to federal charges after allegedly firebombing Teslas at a Kansas City dealership. The crime could carry up to 30 years in prison if the UMass Boston student is convicted.
McIntire's case was elevated to the Justice Department’s national security division, which typically handles terrorism and espionage cases. U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi has called the incident “domestic terrorism.”
"Let me be extremely clear to anyone who still wants to firebomb a Tesla property: you will not evade us," Bondi said following McIntire’s arrest in April. "You will be arrested. You will be prosecuted. You will spend decades behind bars. It is not worth it."
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