Detroit Lions’ season opener will have a dose of presidential politics – MLive.com

While football fans watch the Detroit Lions’ much-anticipated season opener Thursday against the Kansas City Chiefs, they’ll be hit with another reminder: 14 months from the 2024 election, campaigns are already well underway.

President Joe Biden’s reelection campaign will be airing an ad the campaign is calling “got to work,” part of a 16-week, $25 million advertising campaign appealing to voters in battleground states.

The 30-second ad argues, despite fears of economic catastrophe, the U.S. is thriving under Biden’s leadership.

“Today, inflation is down to 3 percent, unemployment the lowest in decades,” a narrators says. “There’s more to do, but President Biden is getting results that matter.”

Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer is a co-chair for Biden’s campaign and is tying the President’s agenda to Michigan’s economy.

“When President Biden took office, he told Michiganders that he was going to rebuild the economy from the bottom up and middle out, and he is keeping his promise,” Whitmer said in a statement. “President Biden has had Michigan’s back for a long time, all the way back to his work as vice president to save Michigan’s auto industry in 2008. Now, his work as president is bringing good-paying manufacturing jobs home to Michigan, helping us lead and build the future of electric vehicles, chips, batteries and so much more. Michigan is on the right track and we are moving towards a brighter future because of President Biden and Vice President (Kamala) Harris’ leadership.”

The ad, the campaign said, will run in a number of major cities: Detroit, Milwaukee, Phoenix, Atlanta, Las Vegas, Philadelphia and Raleigh, North Carolina, on both broadcast and cable news channels.

Biden announced he was running for reelection in April, and a rematch with former President Donald Trump appears increasingly likely.

Even as he faces four separate indictments, Trump is handily leading the Republican presidential primary, with nearly 54% of Republican voters nationwide reporting he’s their pick to take on Biden in 2024, according to a RealClearPolitics polling average. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, Trump’s closest contender in the polls, has just about 14% support from GOP voters.

The pairing isn’t a popular one. Polls conducted as recently as June by YouGov showed majorities of votes would rather both Biden and Trump not run for office again.

Presidential elections, over time, have gotten longer, leading to voters being subjected to ad blitzes earlier on than in cycles past, and vastly more expensive. The 2020 presidential election saw $5.7 billion in spending alone, according to the Center of Responsive Politics, and 2022 surpassed the overall election’s total.

The Detroit Lions will play the Chiefs at 8:20 p.m. Thursday in Kansas City. The game will be aired on NBC.