Art-based Super PAC posts anti-Trump billboards and street posters around Cleveland in run-up to first presidential debate

Updated Sep 24, 2020


A picture of the anti-Donald Trump billboard on the corner of Carnegie Avenue and East 40th Street sponsored by Artists United for Change. The Super PAC is posting billboards and street posters from noted street artists around the city in the run-up to the first presidential debate on Sept. 29. (Artists United for Change/photo provided)

By Seth A. Richardson, cleveland.com

CLEVELAND, Ohio – A political group is weaponizing their art in Cleveland as the first presidential debate approaches, posting billboards and street art posters around Northeast Ohio critical of Republican President Donald Trump.

Part of the Super PAC Artists United for Change’s RememberWhatTheyDid and #VoteThemOut campaign, the billboards feature artwork from several notable street artists adorned with quotes from Trump highlighting his response to the coronavirus pandemic, immigration detention and police brutality.

The Cleveland campaign was the brainchild of local political strategist Jeff Rusnak, who sits on the group’s board, and Scott Goodstein, co-founder of the group and a Cleveland native, who said the idea was to use the art as a get-out-the-vote strategy for Black, Hispanic and young voters outside the typical strategy of digital advertising.

“We’re going with billboards and posters in neighborhood communities and streets,” Goodstein said in an interview. “You’re going to see these popping up all over Coventry and Tremont and other neighborhoods to make sure people get out the vote.”

Part of the plan for the program, which includes nine billboards around the city, is to play off Cleveland’s role in electing Trump president. In 2016, the city hosted the Republican National Convention, where Trump formally accepted the nomination en route to a surprise victory.

“We are reminding voters of the harm Donald Trump has caused the Buckeye state through his words and actions,” Rusnak said. “Think about what Donald Trump said. Think about what he did and ask yourself is this your America?”

The billboards and posters feature some high-profile artist names, most notably Shepard Fairey, a street artist famed for his guerrilla “OBEY” campaign featuring wrestler Andre the Giant and his “Hope” poster, a stylized portrait of then-Sen. Barack Obama from the 2008 election.

Another artist, Justin Hampton, has created concert posters for musicians such as Metallica, Nine Inch Nails, Radiohead, Soundgarden and Pearl Jam and the Lollapalooza music festival in Chicago.

Other artists include Nate Lewis, an ICU nurse whose contribution included an illustration featuring Trump’s comment that the coronavirus would “just disappear,” and Claudio Martinez, whose billboard includes an artist depiction of a migrant child being separated from her mother at the border.

Billboard locations include along Interstate 71 from Cleveland Hopkins International Airport to Downtown, West 25th Street in Ohio City and along Carnegie Avenue on the way to the Sheila and Eric Samson Pavilion, the site of the debate.

The first presidential debate between Trump and Democratic former Vice President Joe Biden will start 9 p.m. Tuesday. Fox News anchor Chris Wallace will moderate the 90-minute forum co-hosted by the Cleveland Clinic and Case Western Reserve University.

Letters to the Editor
Message of anti-Trump billboard in Cleveland could be misconstrued

 Posted Sep 26, 2020

By Other Voices

The anti-Trump billboard at Carnegie Avenue and East 40th Street is a well-intentioned attempt to hurt President Donald Trump, but I think a lot of people will miss the point (“Anti-Trump posters, billboards pop up,” Sept. 25). The message could give Trump’s law-and-order campaign slogan an unintended boost. The smaller phrase, “Vote Them Out!,” should have been enlarged and placed at the top of the billboard to better zero in on the intended message.

Frank Sobolewski,
North Royalton