[Anti-Trump Billboards\Presidential Debate]
Jeff Rusnak: “We are reminding voters of the harm Donald Trump has caused the Buckeye state through his word and actions. Think about what Donald Trump said. Think about what he did and ask yourself is this your America?”
Photo Art: Justin Hampton
In 2016, Donald Trump was coronated at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland. On Tuesday, Cleveland will be sending a very different message to President Trump when he arrives for the first presidential debate of 2020.
The RememberWhatTheyDid and #VoteThemOut campaign has launched nine anti-Trump billboards in the city and posted thousands of street art posters ahead of the Presidential debate.
The billboards and street art will greet President Trump and the national press corps as they descend on Cleveland for the first Presidential Debate on September 29th. The billboards which take on Trump’s failures on issues like Coronavirus, migrant children and police brutality line the route from the airport to downtown Cleveland and the major streets to hotels and the debate site on the Cleveland Clinic’s campus.
With the debate’s location on the campus of world-renowned health institution the Cleveland Clinic, it is fitting that art work by former ICU nurse turned artist Nate Lewis and by legendary rock poster artist Justin Hampton focused on Trump’s failures on Coronavirus will be prominently displayed on the route to the Cleveland Clinic campus. The art features Trump’s own words “that’s going to sort of just disappear… I hope.” (July 2020) and “This is so unfair to me.” (May 2020) overlaid with jarring images of the utter devastation caused by Trump’s failures.
See the art and learn more here: https://rememberwhattheydid.com/
The RememberWhatTheyDid and #VoteThemOut campaign has launched dozens of billboards and posted thousands of street art posters across five battleground cities: Detroit, Michigan; Milwaukee, Wisconsin; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; Cleveland, Ohio and Phoenix, Arizona.
Organized by Cleveland natives Scott Goodstein and Jeff Rusnak along with DC- based artist Robin Bell, known for his video projections on the Trump Hotel in DC, the campaign brings together leading artists from across the United States. The billboards and street art starkly portray the worst atrocities perpetrated by President Trump and his allies as part of a get out the vote and voter registration drive focused on young people, African-American, and Latinx voters who are frequently underrepresented at the polls and not reached with traditional political advertising.
Viewers are urged to go to www.RememberWhatTheyDid.com, where they can pledge to vote, register to vote, learn about early voting or crowdfund more billboards in battleground communities across the country. A partner on the effort is Collective Super PAC, the SuperPAC affiliate of The Collective PAC which is dedicated to building Black political power with candidate support and nationwide voter registration and education campaigns. The Collective is working to create an America where Black people are equally represented at every level of government.
“We are reminding voters of the harm Donald Trump has caused the Buckeye state through his word and actions. Think about what Donald Trump said. Think about what he did and ask yourself is this your America?” said Jeff Rusnak, a co-founder of Artists United for Change and a longtime Ohio strategist.
“New polling shows Ohio is dead even and no Republican has won the White House without Ohio. It’s clear Trump and Pence are worried and with good reason. But to vote them out, we all need to stand up and be counted. Some forty percent of voters aren’t reached by the usual voter-file matched political advertising and many of these voters are in communities that are underrepresented at the polls. So we are bringing our message to the streets because in an election year this important, we cannot allow any of our communities to be overlooked,” said co-founder and Cleveland native Scott Goodstein.
“These images are a stark reminder of the atrocities perpetrated by this President and his allies. We are connecting what has been said and done with the importance of voting. Our message is simple: Remember what they did and vote them out,” said campaign co-founder Robin Bell.
“The Covid pandemic coupled with continued police brutality brought to the surface inequities across race and gender in every facet of American life. This reckoning with America’s racist legacy has been led by young activists who have taken the movement for Black Lives to the streets. The artwork embodies the energy of these young activists in an effort to connect to communities on a visceral level and to move everyone to the voting booth in November,” said artist Nekisha Durrett.
“Life imitates art, and the images we see have a direct impact on our democracy. The Collective is proud to work with the Artists United for Change community as they depict what we are all feeling – the need for change and realizing that change come November 3rd,” said Quentin James, Founder and President of The Collective.
The RemememberWhatTheyDid campaign is a project of Artists United for Change.
