Liz Dahan launches first TV ad to run during presidential debate; it features her former boss, Madeleine Albright

Image via Liz Dahan campaign.

Liz Dahan, one of several Democrats vying for their party’s nomination in Florida’s 13th Congressional District, will air her first television advertisement of the cycle on Thursday evening.

The ad will run locally on CNN during the highly anticipated presidential debate hosted by the news network.

The ad touches on some of Dahan’s campaign platform, including banning assault weapons, restoring abortion rights and women’s rights more broadly. It also features prominently a woman considered a pioneer in Democratic politics, former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright. Dahan served as a member of her advisory group.

“Madeleine Albright was my hero,” Dahan says in the ad’s opening as an image of her appears next to Albright’s portrait. Albright was the first woman to hold the position of Secretary of State. She served from 1997 until 2001 under former President Bill Clinton.

“I worked with Madeleine and traveled the globe supporting democracy,” Dahan continues in the ad as video shows Dahan at a desk wearing a lapel pin that harkens back to those Albright was known for, each chosen to send various messages based on the events she was attending.

Dahan calls out the pins in her ad, saying they “sent messages about diplomacy and hope.”

The mention of democracy in the ad sets Dahan up to differentiate herself from Republican incumbent Anna Paulina Luna.

“Now, with democracy and rights under assault, I’ll use that experience to fight Trump and Luna to ban assault weapons, restore abortion rights and women’s rights, and make America sane again,” she said, emphasizing the word “sane” in her play on former President Donald Trump’s “Make America Great Again” slogan.

“As we launch our first television ad, I want to underscore that I am ready to lead. Americans and the people of Pinellas County are tired of the extremism and chaos,” Dahan said of the ad and, more broadly, her campaign. “It’s time to make America sane again.”

In addition to appearing on CNN, the ad will also air on digital platforms, a paid advertising strategy meant to reach a wide variety of voters across multiple platforms.

The campaign is also placing billboard ads across Pinellas County that will show variably through the Primary Election on Aug. 20.

While Dahan’s television ad did not mention any of her Democratic Primary opponents, she does face several, and she’ll have to get through them before taking on Luna.

“Two out of three voters in this race are still undecided,” Dahan said, referencing an internal survey the campaign conducted finding many voters weren’t familiar with any of the Democratic field.

That’s why, Dahan said, “advertising is key to driving the name recognition and momentum we need to carry us through successfully in the Democratic Primary.”

In all, five Democrats are running, with a sixth who qualified as a write-in candidate. Dahan’s top competition is Whitney Fox, a former Communications Director for the Pinellas Suncoast Transit Authority who, as of the most recent financial reports available, has outraised all of her Primary opponents. Two other candidates are also running competitive races, including Sabrina Bousbar and Mark Weinkrantz.

Dahan, who is from South Florida but now lives in Clearwater, has worked in communications for 20 years, focusing on business, government and foreign policy.

She most recently worked in Washington, D.C., as a partner at Brunswick, a global firm that provides advisory services on a variety of issues including financial, regulatory, political and social. There, Dahan worked with financial institutions, Fortune 500 companies and others to communicate social values and design sustainability and to chart a path toward environmental, social and governance (ESG) strategies.

Dahan also previously worked with the Council on Foreign Relations, the World Bank and with former U.S. Sen. Tom Daschle of South Dakota.

Whoever emerges from the Democratic Primary victorious will have a big challenge ahead. Luna won CD 13 for Republicans in 2022 following redistricting, which shifted the district from a slight Democratic advantage to a GOP-leaning seat. Cook Political Report lists the district as likely Republican at R+6.