WASHINGTON — Democratic campaign committees, political action committees and groups aligned with the party are spending more than $125 million in battleground states as part of an unprecedented effort to make abortion a central election issue.
The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC) will launch a month-long advertising offensive over the next few days, a spokesperson confirmed to The Washington Post on Wednesday. The ad blitz against Republicans comes on the two-year anniversary of the Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade.
The Senate Democrats’ main campaign organization declined to disclose how much they spent on ads. First reported by Axios.
A spokesman for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC), which supports House members, told The Washington Post that the committee plans to hold vulnerable Republicans in New York and across the country accountable for their “extreme anti-abortion records.”
On Wednesday, the ACLU Announced $25 million Established a voter education fund aimed at “protecting and expanding abortion and voting rights at all polling places” through direct mail, digital advertising and other coordinated efforts.
This includes spending on abortion-related ballot measures in the battleground states of Arizona and Nevada, as well as Montana, Nebraska, Colorado, Missouri, Florida and New York.
“This is the most money ever spent during any election cycle,” said Deirdre Schiffering, the ACLU’s chief political and advocacy director. He spoke to NBC News, which first reported the group’s spending..
Last week, House Majority PAC $100 million announced Established the Reproductive Freedom Accountability Fund to boost ad buys and get-out-the-vote efforts in key battleground districts.
The PAC’s total television and digital ad spending will exceed $186 million for the 2024 election cycle, the group’s largest expenditure to date.
3 U.S. Senate seats The Democratic-held seats are considered close races, according to the nonpartisan Cook Political Report. House of Representatives Each party recorded the same rating in the 11 seats it held.
Democrats currently hold a 51-49 majority in the Senate, while Republicans hold a 218-213 majority in the House of Representatives with four vacancies.
The National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) issued a memo in March urging candidates to discuss the abortion issue on the campaign trail, saying the party was suffering from “a branding problem, not a policy problem.” The memo was first reported by The Journal..
Prior to this, Republican candidates had disappointing results in the 2022 midterm elections.
Republican allies such as Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America have also encouraged the party to “go on the offensive.” About messaging By November, eight battleground states are due to vote: Arizona, Georgia, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, Ohio and Montana.
in Wednesday’s Note“Democrats and their abortion industry allies will accept nothing less than unlimited, taxpayer-funded abortion on demand,” the group said, urging candidates to emphasize that contrast rather than adopting an “ostrich strategy” in the midterm elections.
Those efforts have been complicated by former President Donald Trump, who appointed three conservative Supreme Court justices who voted to strike down Roe but did not shy away from criticizing his own party on the issue.
Last month, The Washington Post broke the story that the Federal Election Commission (FEC) had approved an advisory opinion allowing unlimited foreign and outside funding to state-level political action committees (PACs) and nonprofits that fund abortion-related voter activity.
The National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) comment They have previously filed a proposal with the Federal Election Commission arguing that the rules would directly affect how candidates are elected and would lead to a “flood of foreign contributions into the American political system.”
Federal campaign finance law prohibits individual candidates and their fundraising committees from accepting so-called “dark money” or foreign contributions.
Colorado, South Dakota and Florida have approved holding general election referendums to expand abortion rights, while supporters are collecting signatures in five other states, including Arizona and Nevada.
Only seven states have laws banning foreign money from being used to vote. According to Ballotpedia.
