For the first time, the Democratic National Committee will invest in an advertising campaign dedicated entirely to LGBTQ publications in large metropolitan areas and several key battleground states.
The DNC will roll out the ad campaign, worth at least $100,000, on Friday morning in 16 publications across eight states, and it is estimated to reach more than 1 million voters in the first week. Those publications include the Washington Blade and Metro Weekly in the Washington, D.C., area; Out South Florida; Qnotes in Charlotte, North Carolina; the Las Vegas Spectrum; Georgia Voice; GoGuide Voter’s Guide in Iowa; Dallas Voice; Philadelphia Gay News; Ambush Magazine in New Orleans; ION Arizona; and SWERV Magazine, a national Black LGBTQ periodical.
The campaign will be featured in the Georgia Voice during Atlanta’s Pride weekend and in Philadelphia Gay News during OurFest, a festival to celebrate National Coming Out Day in Pennsylvania.
“This historic investment from the Democrats aims to meet voters where they are, recognizing that the LGBTQ+ community is a large and diverse voting bloc that we are not taking for granted,” Jaime Harrison, DNC chair, said in a statement. “Our fundamental freedoms to be who we are and who we love are on the ballot this November, and we’re empowering diverse corners of the LGBTQ+ community to make their voices heard.”
Harrison added, “In this fractured media environment, we know that we need to be smart about how we are talking to people, reaching voters through trusted platforms so folks in the LGBTQ+ community and beyond can easily check their voter registration status and learn when, where, and how to vote.”
Beyond saying it was a six-figure ad buy, the DNC declined to say exactly how much it spent on the campaign.
The ads feature the message “Freedom is on the Ballot. Make a Plan to Vote,” and they urge voters to visit Iwillvote.com, a DNC-run platform that helps eligible voters register and check their registration status, check the status of cast ballots and learn more about voting. The ads use a simple red, white and blue scheme, and some feature the progress Pride flag, which also includes the transgender flag colors and colors to represent LGBTQ communities of color.
The DNC worked on the ads with Rivendell, the oldest LGBTQ marketing and media company in the country.
The ads will roll out just a day after the Harris-Walz campaign and the Human Rights Campaign, the nation’s largest LGBTQ advocacy group, launched 10 Days of Action, a series of events aimed at mobilizing LGBTQ and allied voters.
The efforts contrast recent advertisements from the Trump campaign featuring prominent LGBTQ figures such as drag performer Pattie Gonia and photos of trans people as examples of what the campaign views as extreme left-wing views on gender.
Over the last few weeks, two Trump ads running nationally and locally in swing states — especially during NFL and college football games — criticized Vice President Kamala Harris’ past support for taxpayer-funded gender-affirming medical care for people in prison. The ads end with the tagline: “Kamala is for they/them,” referring to gender-neutral pronouns used by some LGBTQ people, “President Trump is for you.”
Bob Witeck, president of Witeck Communications, a firm specializing in LGBTQ marketing, described the DNC’s ad campaign as “brilliant.” He said he spoke to DNC officials in 2000 and 2004 about doing a similar campaign but was told they didn’t have the budget for it.
In 2003, Vermont Gov. Howard Dean, a Democrat who was running for president, hired Witeck to write the text for an advertisement in The Advocate, the oldest LGBTQ magazine in the U.S. Witeck said it may have been the first pro-LGBTQ targeted ad in presidential politics.
“He risked his political career to stand with us,” the ad read, referring to a law Dean signed in April 2000 that made Vermont the first state to legalize same-sex unions. “It’s time for us to stand with him.” The law caused fervent backlash and an effort to unseat Dean and regain Republican control of the state Legislature.
Witeck said the ad was effective simply because the LGBTQ community had never seen any presidential candidate advertise in gay media — let alone taking a supportive stance.
The DNC paying for an advertisement this far-reaching more than two decades later, Witeck said, “is a breakthrough.”
“I hope that it’s going to be the kind of wake-up call people will see,” Witeck said.
Gabriele Magni, an assistant professor of political science at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles and director of the school’s LGBTQ Politics Research Initiative, said his initial reaction to the DNC’s historic ad buy was: “Finally.”
He noted that 7.2% of U.S. adults identify as LGBTQ, according to a Gallup poll released last year, making LGBTQ people a significant voting bloc.
Magni said LGBTQ voters have historically been taken for granted by the Democratic Party because the majority of them vote Democratic, often because Republicans have supported anti-LGBTQ policies and voters feel like they don’t have another option.
“But I think that the problem with this mentality is that we overlook the fact that it is essential to mobilize voters to convince them to go to the polls on Election Day,” Magni said, adding that although LGBTQ voters are unlikely to switch their vote to the Republican Party, they might stay home if they’re not mobilized.
“That is why this initiative is important, especially given how close the election is in many swing states, even mobilizing a few 1,000 voters — people that otherwise would have stayed home — that really can determine the outcome of the election,” he said.
