3dfoto/iStock(NEW YORK) — Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s latest television ad in the 2020 cycle centers on climate change, highlighting an issue of key importance in the early-voting state of Iowa as the caucus nears.The television ad is Warren’s first in the state to focus solely on addressing climate change, which a handful of her 2020 opponents have already done, marking a clear effort to address farmers and residents who are concerned about the effects climate change will have on the state’s agricultural economy.“We’re in the middle of a climate crisis, but we can lead the global effort to face down this threat if we take bold action now,” Warren says in the 30-second ad, describing her different plans around climate change to make “big investments in American research, American industry and American workers” while creating “more than a million new jobs here at home.”Warren, who represents Massachusetts, has so far committed $3 trillion to climate change plans, which includes $2 trillion over ten years in economic investment that her campaign estimates would create more than 1 million jobs. Her campaign has also released a plan to encourage decarbonizing the agriculture sector.”I’m Elizabeth Warren, I approve this message, and I’m not afraid to fight to get this done,” Warren says in the ad.Warren’s ad marks the fourth television ad of her campaign, all of which have aired in Iowa, and is part of an 8-figure ad buy the campaign announced in September, after a summer of rising in the polls.Warren will soon ramp up her air time, which has lagged behind other candidates. Though her campaign has only spent around $346,600 on aired ads so far, she has reserved about $7.5 million worth of television airtime for early 2020, about $2.6 million of which has been set to run in Iowa at this time, according to the ad research firm CMAG. The campaign’s peak spending is expected to come the week before the Feb. 3 caucuses, according to CMAG.Her recent investment on an ad focused on climate change is reflective of the role Democrats expect it to play in Iowa.Recently increasing waves of devastating flooding in Iowa has brought climate change to the forefront of the 2020 election for some voters in the state, which relies heavily on agriculture to sustain its economy. Recent reports, like the Fourth National Climate Assessment produced last year, have buoyed concerns with estimates that increased temperatures in the Midwest are projected to be the “largest contributing factor to declines in the productivity of U.S. agriculture.”Democratic candidates have thus worked to make climate change a priority, touring flood-ravaged areas like Pacific Junction with families who lost their homes or participating in climate town halls. For Warren, climate change is an issue that Iowa voters often ask her about on the trail.“Once you’re president, what will you do — what priority would you give to address a deepening, deepening climate crisis, and to move to remove nuclear weapons from this earth?” Warren was asked during the Q&A portion of an event on the campaign trail Monday in West Des Moines, Iowa.Other 2020 candidates have also focused on the issue, specifically in Iowa.Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders just launched a $1.3 million ad about the Green New Deal and his plan to spend $16 trillion address climate change, while South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg and Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar released ads focusing on climate change in October.Copyright © 2019, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.
