Harris targets digital ads spotlighting her words on 'human suffering in Gaza'

Vice President Kamala Harris’ presidential campaign is running new digital spots targeting voters in heavily Muslim neighborhoods in the Detroit area, emphasizing Harris saying she “will not be silent about human suffering in Gaza.”

The ads began running Tuesday on Snapchat and Google, according to records made available by the companies, and include clips of Harris sympathizing with the people of Gaza. They mark a new stage in a microtargeted back-and-forth in the area over the Biden administration’s handling of Israel’s war with Hamas in Gaza, with a GOP-aligned group running digital ads in similar areas stressing Harris’ support for Israel in an apparent bid to drive voters there away from her.

The super PAC, Future Coalition PAC, also ran other ads that highlight the Jewish faith of Harris’ husband, Doug Emhoff, including ads that have leaned on antisemitic “dual loyalty” tropes about Jewish Americans. 

The ads appear to be the first Gaza-related paid advertising from the Harris camp, showing how her campaign is trying to reach out to critics of the administration on the issue.

The first two clips used in the new Harris ad come from Harris’ remarks after meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in July, four days after President Joe Biden announced he wouldn’t seek another term in office. The ad plays a declaration by Harris saying, “I will not be silent,” followed by a quick cut into a second clip from that address, in which she says, “About the scale of human suffering in Gaza, including the death of far too many innocent civilians.” Harris also said in those and other remarks that she also supports Israel’s right to defend itself, but those comments do not feature in these digital ads.

In another clip from a Harris address in March, she addresses the situation in Gaza by arguing: “Our common humanity compels us to act.”

A second ad sounds a similar note, quoting Harris from that July address saying, “What has happened in Gaza over the past nine months is devastating,” adding “we cannot allow ourselves to become numb to the suffering and I will not be silent.”

The ads target nine ZIP codes around Detroit, including Dearborn, a city with a high concentration of people of Middle Eastern or North African descent where Muslim and Arab American political leaders have voiced criticism of Israel’s handling of the war. Earlier this year, Biden officials met with leaders there amid the criticism, and frustrated critics led a push to get Democrats to vote “uncommitted” on the presidential primary ballot as a way to voice disapproval of the administration’s handling of the Israel-Hamas war and its military funding for Israel. 

The majority of the nine ZIP codes in the Harris ad campaign are represented by Democratic Rep. Rashida Tlaib in Congress. Tlaib, who is Palestinian American, endorsed that protest vote in February, and she hasn’t specifically endorsed or said she’d oppose Harris in the general election.      

More recently, the handful of delegates to the Democratic National Convention won by the supporters of that “uncommitted” movement unsuccessfully pushed the party to have a Palestinian speak at the party’s Chicago convention. 

The Harris campaign did not comment on its ad strategy. 

While both Biden and Harris have repeatedly stressed their support for Israel’s right to defend itself in the wake of that attack, there appears to be potential daylight between the two on Israel and Gaza. NBC News reported in March that White House National Security Council officials toned down parts of a Harris speech about the need for a hostage deal and ceasefire between the two sides, and she publicly raised concerns about civilian deaths in Gaza during those speeches referenced in the ads. 

Harris addressed the issue during remarks Tuesday at a discussion with the National Association of Black Journalists.

“I absolutely believe that this war has to end, and it has to end as soon as possible, and the way that will be achieved is by getting a hostage deal and the ceasefire deal done, and we are working around the clock to achieve that end,” Harris said.