NRCC drops flurry of ads in race for the House majority
The National Republican Congressional Committee opened the advertising floodgates Wednesday with the release of a dozen new television ads in key House races.
The spots are all attack ads, a strategy that lines up with our First Read analysis from earlier this week which noted that Republicans have made it clear that their main focus is to disqualify candidates one-by-one.
Until Labor Day, outside groups like the Congressional Leadership Fund had been handling that dirty work, with the NRCC largely keeping its powder dry in general election matchups. But, no longer.
While the NRCC has been outraised by its Democratic counterparts, it still has a boatload of cash to help the GOP hold the House. Through July, the group reported having almost $68 million in the bank, and ad-spending figures from Advertising Analytics shows the NRCC booked more than $44 million in advertising from Labor Day through Election Day. Democrats plan to spend heavily too—the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee has more than $50 million in ad-time booked over the same period.
Here's a quick rundown of the targets and the main lines of attack the GOP are using in the current ad blitz:
- Texas-32: The new spot hits Democrat Gina Ortiz Jones for having lived in Washington, where she worked in the U.S. Trade Representative's office under both former President Obama and briefly under President Trump, before moving back to Texas ahead of her congressional run.
- Texas-07: This attack on Democrat Lizzie Pannill Fletcher attempts to kill two birds with one stone, dropping some opposition research from her time as a lawyer defending a company in an oil spill while lobbing the typical bombs at Fletcher for being too liberal and supporting House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi.
- Minnesota-03: Democrat Dean Phillips is hit for his opposition to the GOP tax plan and on reports he initially give employees of his coffee shop health care. His campaign has called those attacks misleading, noting there were no full-time employees at the start and that paid those employees high wages so they could afford health care on the individual market.
- Minnesota-01: This ad attacking Democrat Dan Feehan links his Milwaukee background to learning "Chicago-style politics" and hits Feehan as a supporter of Pelosi and Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.
- Minnesota-02: So much for Minnesota nice—this ad attacks Democrat Angie Craig's business record, which was an issue during her 2016 matchup against Republican Rep. Jason Lewis.
- New York-19: The new NRCC ad is yet another attack from Republicans on Antonio Delgado's rap career, which has become their top hit in this race.
- Virginia-10: Republican Rep. Barbara Comstock gets some welcome attention on her race, where the NRCC just booked almost $5 million in ads in her district.
- New York-22: The NRCC calls Democrat Anthony Brindisi the "right-hand man" of New York Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo.
- Florida-26: This spot revives the GOP push to link Democrat Debbie Mucarsel-Powell to a "shady Ukranian militia leader" since her husband did work for companies with links to the leader. Mucarsel-Powell's campaign blasted the association when it first surfaced in July as too indirect.
- Virginia-02: Democrat Elaine Luria gets the generic Democrat treatment, as the new spot frames her as "too far left" for the district.
- Pennsylvania-01: The NRCC joins the pile on Democrat Scott Wallace, a favorite of Republican opposition researchers who have attacked him for donations from his family foundation.
- New Jersey-03: Democrat Andy Kim gets hit on opposing the tax cuts while the NRCC magnifies attacks levied by Kim's opponent, GOP Rep. Tom MacArthur, on his taxes.