Democrats fly banners over college football games against Project 2025

Now, they will take their campaign against the conservative Project 2025 plan, written by allies of Republican Donald Trump, to the skies above college football stadiums in key swing states.

Banners sponsored by the Democratic National Committee, flown by small planes, fly over Michigan Stadium on Saturday, where the defending national champion Wolverines take on Texas and at home for Penn State and Wisconsin. A banner set to fly over Georgia’s home game could be affected by the weather.

Vice President Kamala Harris and her allies have spent months warning about Project 2025, betting the initiative makes Trump look particularly extreme. At more than 900 pages and produced by the conservative Heritage Foundation, the plan lays out how Trump, in his second term, could do everything from firing tens of thousands of federal workers to dismantling government departments to imposing new restrictions on abortion and diversity initiatives.

Trump has rejected a direct link to Project 2025, although he has also supported some of its key ideas.

Saturday’s gambit puts Democratic messaging over stadiums with a total capacity of more than 380,000 fans, with tens of thousands of fans near each game.

“JD Vance ‘hearts’ Ohio State + Project 2025,” read the message over Michigan Stadium, suggesting Trump’s running mate loves the project as much as Michigan’s storied archrival.

In Wisconsin, home to South Dakota, the message is “Jump Around! Beat Trump + Project 2025,” a nod to the fans who jump with enough ferocity to shake Camp Randall Stadium when House of Pain’s “Jump Around” plays between the third and fourth quarters.

Georgia, home to Tennessee Tech, and the game at Penn State Bowling Green are getting more general messages urging fans to “Defeat Trump, Sack Project 2025 — though weather patterns along the flight path made it uncertain whether the Georgia banner will fly

The banners will begin flying about four hours before the games begin and could continue into the games depending on the decisions of the air commanders at each location, said DNC Deputy Communications Director Abhi Rahman.

The air blitz follows Harris’s campaign and the party airs Project 2025 multiple times each day, often unsolicited.

The DNC marked Labor Day by arguing that Bill 2025 would undermine overtime rules and the rights of “embattled” workers. It also paid for Internet ads from the initiative that appeared for users searching for “back to school.” Democrats continued to point to Project 2025 in seemingly incongruous places, while pointing out that Vance was booed at a recent firefighter convention or slamming Trump for targeting perceived political enemies in online posts.

“We want people to know exactly what Project 2025 is, what the ties are to Trump,” Rahman said. “Finding creative ways to get the message across is something we’re always trying to do.”

Democratic strategist Brad Bannon warned that Harris’ focus on Project 2025 “cannot overpower her positive message about the changes she wants to make.”

“She can’t afford to go overboard,” he said, “if it interferes with establishing her own personal profile.”

Meanwhile, much of Saturday’s game crowds may support Trump. Many college football fans come from rural, more Republican areas, far beyond the confines of reliably Democratic college towns.

“One of the really interesting things when political candidates try to use sports is that they put themselves at risk,” said Amy Bass, who is a sports studies professor at Manhattanville University in Purchase, New York.

She revealed that Trump was surprised to be booed while attending Game 5 of the 2019 World Series — though the former president also made mostly successful tailgate stops before the 2023 Iowa-Iowa State football game and when South Carolina hosted Clemson last Thanksgiving.

Sports crowds have “a tendency to be loud, they also have an extra layer of alcohol and tailgating and all kinds of things before the game, and they didn’t organize that crowd,” Bass said.

Rahman, however, shrugged off such concerns.

“They can get as loud as they want on a banner,” he said. “But the message is definitely there. It’s there for a reason.”

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