Pro-GOP super PAC launches $10 million ad campaign against Democratic senators

A fresh round of attack ads against Democratic U.S. Senate candidates is hitting the airwaves in several competitive races, designed to raise doubts about their support for one of President Biden’s top legislative accomplishments.

AFP Action, one of the largest pro-GOP super PACs supporting congressional candidates, is launching a $10 million television and digital ad campaign against Democratic senators Jon Tester of Montana, Jacky Rosen of Nevada, Sherrod Brown of Ohio, Bob Casey of Pennsylvania, Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin and Rep. Elisa Slotkin of Michigan, who’s running for her state’s open U.S. Senate seat.

Tester and Brown are the most vulnerable Democratic incumbents of the cycle, while the others remain in expensive and closely watched competitive races, despite recent polling showing them pacing ahead of their Republican rivals. 

Most of the ads call out the candidates for supporting the Inflation Reduction Act, a $1.2 trillion piece of legislation passed in 2022. AFP Action argues the measure costs the average American family roughly an additional $1,000 every month because the federal spending authorized by the act sparked a rise in prices that has only started to abate in recent months.

The ad targeting Casey, for example, faults him for voting for Mr. Biden’s priorities “98% of the time” and contributing to increased prices caused by inflation. It then urges viewers to support Dave McCormick, his Republican opponent. 

Casey has argued the legislation is helping cut health-care related costs, noting earlier this year that “80,200 Pennsylvanians on Medicare Part B and D are paying at most $35 a month for insulin, and 346,000 Pennsylvanians are paying hundreds of dollars less for health care Marketplace premiums.”

The ad targeting Brown calls out his nearly 30 years in elected office and says his vote for the act “drove inflation higher, forcing Buckeye families to pay nearly $1,000 more per month for everyday essentials. Sherrod Brown let us down.” It buoys “first-generation American Bernie Moreno,” his GOP rival. 

Brown has defended his vote for the measure, noting it’s saved his constituents money in health-care and energy costs and that the federal investment in Ohio should help spur new jobs. 

“These Senators drove our economy over a cliff by voting in lockstep with the Biden-Harris administration’s far-left progressive agenda, and now they want a do-over,” said AFP Action Director Nathan Nascimento. 

AFP Action is the political arm of Americans for Prosperity, a conservative organization that famously bucked former president Donald Trump last year and endorsed former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley’s presidential bid. But the group dropped its support for her in February and shifted its focus to congressional races. AFP and AFP Action have engaged in more than 500 state races, AFP Action said. 

This new suite of advertising is but a small part of hundreds of millions of dollars set to be spent by various outside super PACs in support of Democratic and Republican congressional candidates, on top of the hundreds of millions already earmarked to be spent on the presidential campaign. Most of the ad time was reserved in the spring at lower rates in anticipation of a cluttered political ad market this fall.