This is an adapted excerpt from the Sept. 19 episode of "Deadline: White House."
On Thursday, the group White Dudes for Harris unveiled its first ad as part of a $10 million campaign targeting male voters in the critical battleground states of Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. It’s part of a larger effort by the Harris campaign to win over white men, a voting bloc largely loyal to Donald Trump.
The ad starts by acknowledging that “white dudes” are “pretty sick of hearing how much we suck" and calls out Trump and MAGA Republicans for “making it worse" by "shouting nonsense in their stupid red hats:"
“All they’ve ever done is screw us over, but if you’re not on the MAGA train, where do you go? ... Then it hit me, this isn’t picking teams. It’s about who’s got a plan that’s going to make life better for me and my family.”
The ad made me laugh out loud. It wasn’t heavy-handed. It wasn’t preachy.
Men need to ask themselves: Who is more of a genuine role model, Tim Walz or Donald Trump?
For years, Trump has weaponized masculinity. It’s a huge theme he keeps pounding away on. Trump's emphasis on masculinity raises an important question: What does it mean to be a man in America today? Is it someone who’s a sore loser? Someone who insults and mocks women? A bully? Is that how men want the people on their team to be? Is that how men want to raise their sons?
There’s a cognitive dissonance with some Trump voters. I’ve met honorable, responsible men who imbue qualities of decency, character and sportsmanship in other men. Then they turn around and vote for Trump. Those men need to ask themselves: Who is more of a genuine role model, Tim Walz or Trump?
The ad also touches on another issue I see as one of the meta issues in this presidential race, for both men and women. One of the big questions in this campaign is, do Americans want to do this for another four years? Do they really want Trump in their faces for four more years? Voters are tired. Exhaustion could be the underrated X factor in 2024.