This new form of advertising allows the African-American retired neurosurgeon, 64, to communicate with these targeted black voters in what the campaign believes is their preferred style.
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Along with Carson dropping his “hot 16”, rapper Aspiring Mogul is also featured on the ad. The result of their collaboration is a 58 second advertisement that weaves the Presidential candidate’s speeches together with a few bars from the MC.
Campaign spokesman Doug Watts says this would appeal to “a non-traditional voting market for Republicans”. The radio ad buy cost the campaign $150,000.
“Heal. (Vote, vote.) Inspire”.
You can hear the clip below.
Carson’s campaign wants to take advantage of this vulnerability.
This is far from Carson’s first attempt to use rap music in his campaign, as the announcement of his bid for president featured a gospel version of rap star Emimen’s “Lose Yourself”. Carson’s message to America has been generally consistent for decades, though before he courted mostly-white Republican crowds “his devotees were nearly entirely African-Americans focused on upward mobility – people looking to his story for personal, not political, inspiration”, as Jenee Desmond-Harris wrote in a lengthy examination of Carson’s path from surgeon to candidate for Vox.
As Carson rises in the polls – the latest Quinnipiac poll shows him with 23 percent support among Republican respondents – the campaign is working harder to court African-Americans, who they have said will give Carson an edge over his competitors. “Every one of us must fight for us because we are fighting for our children and the next generation”. You’re going to want to use headphones for this one.
“Ben Carson would be awful for black Americans”, former National Basketball Association star Kareem Abdul-Jabbar wrote in a recent op-ed for Time.
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Carson explained his thinking, telling Ramos in the interview, “It’s one of the things that I don’t particularly like about the [LGBT] movement”. Carson isn’t the most dynamic speaker on his best day, so splicing his banal quotes over Mogul’s raps and a beat that’s too fast only makes him sound more tiresome and out of touch than he occasionally sounds live.
