Editors’ Note: Dec. 10, 2019

After this article was published, local news media reported that Mark Graham, a voter featured in the American Bridge ad campaign and another article by The Times, did not vote in the 2016 election; The Times has confirmed those reports. While Mr. Graham acknowledged misspeaking about his voting record, he said the Times article and the ad campaign accurately reflect his feelings about the 2016 race and President Trump’s performance in office.

A Democratic group unveiled a $3 million advertising campaign Tuesday featuring people who supported President Trump but now regret it, the first wave of a yearlong effort to reclaim some of the voters in the industrial Midwest who helped tip the 2016 election.

The group, American Bridge, will air commercials in Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania that are first-person testimonials from residents of each state explaining why they backed Mr. Trump in 2016 and why they will not do so again next year. While it’s not uncommon to spotlight voters in political advertising, these commercials feature no narration and are set, documentary-style, in the homes and towns of those on camera.

“We want to create a permission structure in these communities,” said Bradley Beychok, the president of American Bridge. “We want them to know, ‘It wasn’t just me.’ But you have to create space for people to defect.”