Inside a Kamala Harris Ad That Draws an Implicit Contrast on Character

Vice President Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign is running this 30-second ad on television stations in at least four battleground states and has spent more than $5 million since first airing it in mid-September, according to AdImpact.

Here’s a look at the ad, its accuracy and its main takeaway.

The first few seconds of this ad are pulled directly from Ms. Harris’s appearance on Sept. 10 in a presidential debate against former President Donald J. Trump. Viewers see a composed vice president who leans on her career as a prosecutor to argue that she will represent Americans across political parties if she wins in November.

Photos show Ms. Harris as a prosecutor and then as vice president. Video clips show her alongside her running mate, Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota, as she greets supporters at a market in Wisconsin and a campaign office in Phoenix. They show her speaking expressively to construction workers in Philadelphia and with volunteers at a Planned Parenthood in Minnesota. And they see her smiling, hugging or shaking hands with workers in a record shop and a nursery in Washington, D.C., a Georgia solar-cell factory, and a Wisconsin union hall.

“As a prosecutor, I never asked a victim or a witness, ‘Are you a Republican or a Democrat?’ The only thing I ever asked them: ‘Are you OK?’ And that’s the kind of president we need right now. Someone who cares about you and is not putting themselves first. I intend to be a president for all Americans and focus on investing right now in you, the American people. And we can chart a new way forward.”

There are no verifiable claims.

This ad is meant to portray Ms. Harris as more presidential than partisan. The promise of governing for all Americans has become a bit of a rote