Priorities USA pulling staff out of Florida

Saying it has achieved its goal of early organizing to oppose President Donald Trump‘s reelection, Priorities USA is pulling up stakes and leaving Florida.

The Democratic super PAC has been spending $70 million this spring and early summer on television and online advertising in Florida and three other battleground states. But below that overt effort, the organization also brought in organizing and digital staff to Florida, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin.

The advertising will continue. Priorities USA said it has committed to spending $200 million by Election Day, largely in Florida, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Arizona, and Wisconsin. The ground troops, however, are going home Wednesday.

“When we conceived this program in 2019, we saw an opportunity to fill an important need. By putting communications and digital staff in key swing states while most of the spotlight was focused on the Democratic primary, we could play an important role in holding Trump accountable and laying the groundwork for our future nominee in places we need to win in November — Florida, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin,” Steve Pierce, Priorities USA’s director of battleground state communications, stated in a news release Tuesday.

“Now that Joe Biden is our party’s presumptive nominee and his campaign is staffing up in these crucial battlegrounds, this piece of our work has reached its logical conclusion,” he continued. “We’re happy to step back and pass the baton to the Biden campaign, knowing that our team has done all we can to shape the conversation and lift up the voices of voters in these states.”

The organization began airing anti-Trump advertising in Florida and other swing states last summer, spending about $50 million through January, and has spent even more this spring. Among the ads were two that attacked Trump for his COVID-19 response, including the fever line commercial, “Exponential Threat” that began airing in March and drew angry objections and threats of lawsuits from the Trump campaign, which contended Priorities USA was using Trump soundbites out of context.