Most Americans first met Brayden Harrington back in August during the Democratic National Convention. The 13-year-old from New Hampshire obviously isn’t a politician, but he spoke about how inspiring Joe Biden has been because the two share the challenge of a stutter.
Harrington’s speech was a hit, viewed millions of times.
So it should come as no surprise that days before the election, the Biden-Harris campaign Sunday released a new ad featuring Harrington, this time narrating a spot about how Biden believes in the resiliency of Americans.
Less than 24 hours later, the campaign launched another new ad featuring another child, but with a very different story.
Skylar Herbert died of COVID-19 complications back in April. The Detroit five-year-old was the daughter of a police officer and firefighter, who here tell their child’s story, and how President Trump’s lack of both a plan and serious precautions have made the pandemic’s impact worse than it needed to be.
Juxtapose that with President Trump’s declaration last month in a speech in Ohio, that the virus affects “virtually nobody” young.
“It affects elderly people, elderly people with heart problems, if they have other problems, that’s what it really affects, in some states thousands of people—nobody young, below the age of 18, like nobody—they have a strong immune system. Who knows?” Trump said. “It affects virtually nobody.”
The Biden campaign has long focused on the Senator’s decency, optimism, and positivity, along with his experience in handling a crisis. What we have here, just days ahead of the election are two ads that continue to do just that, with the added emotion of making these points through the compelling stories of these children, Brayden and Skylar.