Mayor Lori Lightfoot is appearing alongside 12 other Black mayors in new TV and digital ads that will begin airing over the weekend for Joe Biden and running mate Kamala Harris, targeting African American voters in key battleground states.
And Chicago’s mayor gets to deliver one of the cool punchlines.
In one 30-second spot for the Democratic presidential ticket, Lightfoot appears with the mayors of Atlanta, San Francisco, Charlotte, Washington, D.C. and New Orleans addressing Black women, who have “always been on the front lines of social justice.”
They “organize,” Mayor Vi Lyles of Charlotte, North Carolina, says.
They “make phone calls,” Washington, D.C., Mayor Muriel Bowser says.
“All while being fly,” Lightfoot adds, after a shot of her in shades.
In a separate, 30-second ad, seven Black male mayors urge African American men to vote for the former vice president and California senator. The Biden campaign is also airing an ad of the two 30-second spots fused together for a separate, minute-long ad.
The ads are not slated to air in Illinois, but they will appear in 16 other states on TV and cable, as well as digital platforms. Those states are Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Iowa, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas, Virginia and Wisconsin.
It’s not the first time a Democratic presidential nominee has tapped Chicago’s rookie mayor.
In June, Lightfoot participated in a virtual roundtable the Biden campaign held after a white Minneapolis police officer killed George Floyd, a Black man.
She also took part in a panel focusing on race and social justice during the first night of the Democratic National Convention in August.
David Mellet, Lightfoot’s political chief, said Lightfoot taped the spot on Sept. 20 at Gibsons Italia, 233 N. Canal St. The line about “being fly” was in the script provided by the Biden campaign, he said.
