WASHINGTON — Democrats have denounced it in hundreds of ads and billboards, printed it in a giant book as a convention prop and mentioned it in nearly every speech and press release.
They will now take their campaign against the conservative Project 2025, drafted by allies of Republican Donald Trump, to the skies above college football stadiums in key states.
Banners sponsored by the Democratic National Committee pulled by small planes will fly Saturday over Michigan Stadium, where the defending national champion Wolverines play a big game against Texas, and at home games at Penn State and Wisconsin. A banner that will fly over the Georgia home game could be affected by weather.
Vice President Kamala Harris and her allies have spent months warning about Project 2025, betting that the move would make Trump look particularly extreme. At more than 900 pages long and produced by the conservative Heritage Foundation, the plan lays out the steps Trump could take in his second term, from laying off tens of thousands of federal workers to eliminating departments to imposing new restrictions on abortion and diversity initiatives.
Trump has rejected any direct connection to Project 2025, although he has also endorsed some of its key ideas.
The goal Saturday is to spread the Democratic message to stadiums with a total capacity of more than 380,000, with tens of thousands more fans in close proximity to each game.
“JD Vance ‘loves’ Ohio State + Project 2025,” read the message posted on Michigan Stadium, suggesting that Trump’s running mate loves the project as much as he loves Michigan’s hated nemesis.
In Wisconsin, which hosts South Dakota, the message is “Jump Around! Beat Trump + Project 2025,” a nod to the fans who jump with enough ferocity to shake Camp Randall Stadium when House of Pain’s “Jump Around” is played between the third and fourth quarters.
Georgia, which hosts Tennessee Tech, and Penn State’s game at Bowling Green are getting more general messages urging fans to “Beat Trump, Sack Project 2025” — though weather conditions along the flight route make it uncertain whether Georgia’s banner will fly.
The banners will begin flying about four hours before kickoff and could continue during games, depending on decisions by air officials at each location, DNC deputy communications director Abhi Rahman said.
The airstrike comes on the heels of Harris’ campaign and her party’s talk of Project 2025 multiple times a day, often unprompted.
The Democratic National Committee marked Labor Day by claiming that the 2025 bill would undermine overtime rules and “hard-won” workers’ rights. It also funded online ads for the bill, which appeared for users searching for “back to school.” Democrats also referenced the 2025 bill in seemingly incongruous places, pointing out that Vance had been booed at a recent firefighters convention or criticized Trump for attacking his perceived political enemies in online posts.
“We want people to know exactly what Project 2025 is, how it relates to Trump,” Rahman said. “Finding creative ways to get the message across is something we’re always trying to do.”
Democratic strategist Brad Bannon warned that Harris’ focus on Project 2025 “cannot overshadow her positive message about the changes she wants to make.”
“She can’t afford to overdo it,” he said, “if it gets in the way of establishing her own personal profile.”
Much of the crowd at Saturday’s game may support Trump. Many college football fans come from rural, more Republican areas, well beyond the confines of Democratic-majority college towns.
“One of the really interesting things about political candidates trying to leverage sports is that they’re putting themselves at risk,” said Amy Bass, a professor of sports studies at Manhattanville University in Purchase, New York.
She noted that Trump was surprised to be booed while attending Game 5 of the 2019 World Series — though the former president also made largely successful stops at tailgates before the Iowa-Iowa State football game in 2023 and when South Carolina hosted Clemson after last Thanksgiving.
Sports crowds have “a propensity to get rowdy, to also be faced with an added layer of alcohol, tailgating and all sorts of things before the game, and they didn’t organize that crowd,” Bass said.
Rahman, however, shrugged off these concerns.
“They can get all worked up over a banner,” he said. “But the message is there. There’s a reason for it.”
washingtontimes
