Washington — Democrats denounced it in hundreds of ads and billboards, printed it in a giant book as a convention prop, and referenced it in every speech and press release.
Now they plan to expand their campaign against Project 2025, a conservative blueprint drafted by Republican allies of Donald Trump, to the skies over college football stadiums in key swing states.
A banner sponsored by the Democratic National Committee flies over Michigan Stadium on Saturday, where the national champion Wolverines will play a key game against Texas, and Penn State and Wisconsin will play home games. The banner flying over Georgia’s home game could be affected by weather.
Vice President Kamala Harris and her allies have been warning about Project 2025 for months, betting that the initiative would make Trump look particularly extreme. The 900-plus-page plan, produced by the conservative Heritage Foundation, outlines how Trump would do everything from layoffs of tens of thousands of federal workers to abolishing government departments to imposing new restrictions on abortion and diversity initiatives during his second term.
President Trump has denied any direct connection to Project 2025, but has supported some of its core ideas.
Saturday’s gamble is about getting the Democratic message across to stadiums that can seat more than 380,000 people and draw tens of thousands of fans near each game.
“JD Vance ‘loves’ Ohio State + Project 2025” The message written above Michigan Stadium suggests Trump’s running mate loves the project as much as Michigan loves its hated rival.
In Wisconsin, which is hosting South Dakota, the message is “Jump Around! Beat Trump + Project 2025,” a nod to the fans who jumped so hard that they rocked Camp Randall Stadium when House of Pain’s “Jump Around” played between the third and fourth quarters.
Georgia will host Tennessee Tech and Penn State at Bowling Green and is getting a more general message from fans urging them to “Beat Trump and Kill Project 2025,” but weather patterns along the flight path make it uncertain whether the Georgia banner will be flown.
Avi Rahman, DNC deputy communications director, said banners could begin flying four hours before kickoff and could remain flying until the end of the game, depending on the decisions of local air marshals.
The airstrikes follow Harris’ campaign and party’s multiple mentions of Project 2025 a day, often without prompting.
The DNC celebrated Labor Day by claiming that Project 2025 would undermine overtime rules and “hard-fought” worker rights. It also paid for Internet advertising for the initiative that flashed to users searching for “back to school.” Democrats have also pointed to Project 2025 in seemingly incongruous places, including Trump’s recent denunciation of Vance at a firefighters’ convention and his attacks on perceived political enemies in online posts.
“We want people to know exactly what Project 2025 is and what its connection to Trump is,” Rahman said. “Finding creative ways to get the message out is something we always try to do.”
Democratic strategist Brad Bannon warned that Harris’s focus on Project 2025 “cannot overwhelm the positive message of the change she wants to make.”
“She cannot afford to be excessive if it gets in the way of establishing her personal profile,” he said.
Meanwhile, a significant portion of Saturday’s crowd is likely to support Trump. Many college football fans come from rural, Republican areas far outside the confines of reliably Democratic college towns.
“One of the things that’s really interesting when political candidates try to leverage sports is that they put themselves at risk,” said Amy Bayes, a professor of sports studies at Manhattanville College in Purchase, New York.
She noted that she was surprised when President Trump was booed when he attended Game 5 of the 2019 World Series. But the former president successfully spent time at tailgates before the 2023 Iowa-Iowa State football game, and again when South Carolina hosted Clemson after Thanksgiving last year.
Sports crowds “tend to be loud, with drinking and tailgating and all kinds of things before the game, but they didn’t attract that crowd,” Bayes said.
But Rahman dismissed such concerns.
“They can be as loud as they want with the banner,” he said. “But the message is definitely there. It’s there for a reason.”
