Source: Politics<\/p>\n
A leading Democratic super PAC is planning to pump $30 million into digital ad campaigns in battleground states ahead of the midterms.<\/p>\n
The new advertising push from Priorities USA is focused on seven states with Senate and gubernatorial campaigns that are crucial to the party this fall: Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Arizona, Nevada, Georgia and New Hampshire.<\/p>\n
Priorities\u2019 spending plans for the 2022 cycle come on top of the $20 million that group organizers have announced to fight voter suppression efforts, half of which went to legal challenges and half to voter education. Guy Cecil, chair of Priorities USA, said that a portion of the new investment will also go toward helping voters navigate new election laws in several states and also toward keeping intact the political coalition that helped President Joe Biden get elected in 2020.<\/p>\n
\u201cOver the last three months, we have been running some programs that specifically look at how we improve Biden’s favorability rating among those voters,\u201d Cecil said in an interview. \u201cA lot of these people just want to disengage with politics. They\u2019re tired of it. It can\u2019t be a typical ad where the primary focus is the candidate. It is about helping them understand how much difference their vote actually made and pointing out that it could get a lot worse.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have to raise the stakes of the election, talk about what role they play in that election, and we have to give them the tools to vote,\u201d Cecil added.<\/p>\n
Priorities got its start as the main super PAC for former President Barack Obama in 2012 and for Hillary Clinton in 2016, when it watched Democrats get outspent 20-to-1 on digital advertising<\/a>. It set out to close that gap, and has increasingly prioritized digital ad spending to mobilize and persuade potential voters. Priorities did not run television ads during the last midterms, in which it spent $50 million, and does not have plans to do so this time, either.<\/p>\n During the first year of Biden\u2019s presidency, Priorities raised nearly $28 million across its three entities: the super PAC and two nonprofits. The group said that the total is a \u201cdoubling\u201d of the amount it brought in during 2017, the first year of Donald Trump\u2019s presidency.<\/p>\n Priorities\u2019 advisers noted that their targeted states this year include several House districts that likely will decide control of the lower chamber. After a loss in the Virginia governor\u2019s race and a closer-than-expected finish in New Jersey last fall, the group issued warnings that Democrats faced swift backlash from voters if they did not advance Biden\u2019s climate and social spending plans. The agenda remains stalled.<\/p>\n In a November memo<\/a>, Priorities warned that infrequent or first-time 2020 voters who swung to Democrats and away from Trump might not only sit out the midterms, but were also open to voting for Republicans down-ballot as a check on Biden\u2019s power.<\/p>\n \u201cFor a lot of people, their primary motivation was beating Trump,\u201d Cecil said. \u201cThey\u2019ve now tuned out of politics, and our job is to now tune them back in in creative ways.\u201d<\/p>\n The $30 million digital advertising effort is part of an early wave of commitments from the party\u2019s heaviest hitters as Democrats mount an uphill fight to retain control of Congress. On Friday, POLITICO reported that billionaire mega-donor George Soros<\/a> was putting $125 million into a super PAC to help Democratic groups and candidates. Soros characterized his donation to the group, Democracy PAC, as a “long-term investment” intended to support political work beyond the 2022 election cycle.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is our first public commitment on this, but I don’t expect it to be our last,\u201d Cecil said.<\/p>\n