It's not hard to guess which voters red-state Democrats are targeting in the final weeks before Nov. 4—just look at the ages of some of the people showing up in their ads.
In Kentucky, former Democratic Sen. Wendell Ford, 90, is starring in an Alison Lundergan Grimes ad telling voters to kick out a senator who's "against everything" for someone who will work across party lines. In Virginia, former Republican Sen. John Warner, 87, says current Sen. Mark Warner "has the guts" to reach out to folks in the other party, just like the older Warner—no relation—did during his 30 years in the Senate. In Georgia, former Democratic Sen. Sam Nunn, 76, says a vote for his daughter Michelle Nunn will get Washington working again by putting "more independent thinkers on both sides of the aisle."
But unless the viewers of these ads are 65-plus, there's a good chance they've never heard of these guys.
"These ads are targeted for seniors, particularly for individuals who at one point were Democrats," said Chris Sautter, a Democratic ad maker who is not working on the Senate races this cycle. "These are all Southern states where the politics have shifted over the last generation or so, and their polling tells them that older voters who would recognize these people are still persuadable."