Climate group running ads on Biden policies in Wisconsin and Michigan

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A climate group with ties to Washington state Gov. Jay Inslee is running a $1 million television ad in Michigan and Wisconsin aimed at highlighting President Biden’s record on renewable energy.

The ads, which feature two Democratic governors, Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan and Tony Evers of Wisconsin, are among the most significant third-party ads to air in presidential battleground states so far this cycle.

The group that financed them, the Evergreen Collaborative, was founded by staffers from Mr. Inslee’s 2020 presidential campaign. Over the past three years, the group spent about $2.5 million on issue advocacy ads in Michigan, Nevada and Wisconsin to promote the Inflation Reduction Act, the Michigan Clean Energy Bill and federal pollution standards.

The new ads begin airing Tuesday and will run for three weeks in the Milwaukee and Michigan’s Flint and Grand Rapids television markets.

In Evergreen’s Michigan ad, Ms. Whitmer touts Mr. Biden’s record, as well as her own, on investing in renewable energy in the state.

“Make it in Michigan,” Ms. Whitmer says, as she stands in a job-training center. “This is what we’re doing every day.”

After footage of Mr. Biden at the Detroit auto show appeared, Ms. Whitmer said that “batteries that used to be made in China are now being made all over our state,” an appeal to voters who have been attracted by the anti-China policies of former President Donald J. Trump, Mr. Biden’s Republican rival in the presidential race.

The Wisconsin ad doesn’t feature Mr. Evers until the end. It focuses on solar projects, which the ad says will power 750,000 homes in the state.

“Governor Evers is working even more closely with the Biden administration,” the ad’s narrator says, as photos of Mr. Evers and Mr. Biden visiting a Milwaukee factory last summer are shown. “The value of your home goes up and your energy bill goes down.”

The ad concludes with footage of Mr. Evers’ annual State of the State address. “Wisconsinians, this is the future we’ve worked hard for years to build,” he says.

The ads are an attempt to capitalize on the popularity of Ms. Whitmer and Mr. Evers, who are far more popular than Mr. Biden in their states, according to polls.

Because Evergreen is technically an issue-advocacy organization, it is prohibited from explicitly urging people to vote for Mr. Biden, but the message here is not subtle. The Michigan ad, in which Ms. Whitmer is wearing a leather jacket and speaking from a factory floor, could itself be a Biden campaign ad. The logic boils down to this: You like my work, so support President Biden.

None of the ads mention the Inflation Reduction Act, an $891 billion law that Mr. Biden signed into law in 2022. Relatively few Americans have heard of the law, and top Democratic Party strategists have discouraged campaigns from mentioning it by name.

Instead, through these ads, Evergreen wants to remind voters that what they love — making car batteries in Michigan and harnessing solar power in Wisconsin — has been brought to them by the Biden administration. Less than six months before the presidential election, Mr. Biden has failed to get this message across to voters, leaving it to supportive outside groups and Democratic governors to do the job for him.