Source: Politics<\/p>\n
Democrats passed their landmark legislation in time for the midterms. Now they need to sell it to voters \u2014 and the first phase of that effort is taking shape.<\/p>\n
In plans shared first with POLITICO, a trio of Democratic groups \u2014 Climate Power, the League of Conservation Voters and Future Forward USA Action, a nonprofit backed by several major Democratic donors \u2014 is dropping $10 million on a national TV ad campaign to define the legislation in the minds of voters. It\u2019s the largest paid ad effort to bolster the legislation so far, as an array of Democratic groups and candidates kick off a 90-day sprint to promote the package and defy a brutal electoral environment for the party.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe magnitude, the scope and the importance of what Congress and Biden just did for climate change is transformational \u2026 and it is essential that people understand the magnitude of what just happened,\u201d said Pete Maysmith, senior vice president of campaigns at the League of Conservation Voters. He predicted that Republicans would try to mislead voters about the bill, and \u201cwe can\u2019t sit around and wait for that to happen. We need to aggressively tell this story.\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a task the party has been particularly bad at in the past \u2014 most notably in 2010 after the passage of Obamacare \u2014 and there\u2019s no guarantee this time will be different.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere was no campaign to win the win\u201d after passage of the Affordable Care Act, said Lori Lodes, executive director of Climate Power, \u201cwhereas the other side spent $450 million to define it as a socialist takeover.\u201d That cycle, Democrats lost 63 House seats and six Senate seats.<\/p>\n
After President Joe Biden signed the Inflation Reduction Act into law on Tuesday, White House cabinet officials fanned out across the country to stump for it, hosting events in California, Iowa, New Jersey, Arizona, Mississippi and Nevada on Thursday and Friday. Vulnerable senators are talking it up on the campaign trail, while Democratic TV admakers are rushing to cut ads.<\/p>\n
\u201cI know frontline members have already shot spots explaining their vote, touting what\u2019s in the bill and basically saying \u2014 promises made, promises kept on lowering prescription drug costs and health care costs,\u201d said Ian Russell, a Democratic admaker and former political director at the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. \u201cYou\u2019ll see those ads proliferate for frontline Democrats.\u201d<\/p>\n
For it to stick in voters\u2019 minds, Russell said, \u201cyou have to put money behind it,\u201d he continued. \u201cYou have to sell it through ads.\u201d<\/p>\n
There\u2019s more ad spending on the horizon, both from candidates and outside groups, a half-dozen Democratic strategists said. Building Back Together, a group led by former Biden campaign officials to support the president\u2019s policies, will be rolling out a more than $1 million ad buy, particularly targeting voters of color, according to a spokesperson for the group.<\/p>\n
The Democratic National Committee is also planning to launch its own TV and digital ad campaign boosting the new law, according to a committee official.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis [spending] reinforces what Democrats in the House and the Senate are already talking about,\u201d said JB Poersch, president of Senate Majority PAC, the flagship Senate Democratic super PAC. Among the provisions he said would resonate with voters: lowering drug costs by allowing Medicare to negotiate prices, instituting an insulin spending cap for Medicare recipients and shoring up the Affordable Care Act. \u201cIt helps to echo that relief is on the way.\u201d<\/p>\n
Senate Majority PAC <\/a>cut its own ad this week<\/a> in Nevada that boosted Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto<\/a> (D-Nev.) for efforts to \u201ccap insulin costs at $35,\u201d while her Republican opponent, Adam Laxalt, \u201ccalled a plan to cut insulin costs \u2018reckless.\u2019\u201d The law does cap insulin prices for Medicare recipients, but that provision does not extend to those with private insurance, a piece of the bill that was knocked out by Republican opposition.<\/p>\n The sales pitch is also coming from the candidates themselves, who can “in debates, on the stump, through TV ads, point to concrete things they\u2019ve done,” said Ben Wikler, the chairman of the Democratic Party of Wisconsin. The legislation is \u201cthe proof point that speaks to the overall case that we\u2019re making to voters right now,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Even as Democrats lean into their legislative accomplishments, the fundamentals of the election are bleak. Biden\u2019s approval ratings are stuck in the low-40s and inflation, though ticking down slightly, remains high. And breaking through to voters is a tough task, evidenced by recent polling<\/a> that found only a quarter of voters were aware that Democrats passed a $550 billion infrastructure package last year.<\/p>\n \u201cFor independent voters, until they see changes in how much money is leaving their pocket every month, this is going to fall largely on deaf ears,\u201d said Robert Blizzard, a Republican pollster who works on a range of congressional races across the country. \u201cThis is merely a play to gin up support among their base.\u201d<\/p>\n But the legislation has given the party a concrete legislative achievement to tout. One veteran of the Obamacare sales job debacle 12 years ago said that Democrats\u2019 challenge is clear this time around.<\/p>\n \u201cThe key lesson here is the journey to fight for the success of a law doesn\u2019t end with bill passage, but that kicks off a whole new phase where communications are equally as important,\u201d said Ben LaBolt, a Democratic strategist. \u201cIt\u2019s important to not only do that in electoral advertising, which happens in a specific period of weeks every two years, but you have to show up in voters’ feeds, on their connected streaming TVs, on cable TV, all on a repeated basis explaining what the law does.\u201d<\/p>\n The ads airing as a part of the $10 million buy will appear on cable stations and streaming platforms. They\u2019ll also run on two messaging tracks, leaning on the issues that are polling particularly well among voters, according to public polling<\/a>. The first batch focus on how \u201cJoe Biden and Democrats in Congress just passed a law that lowers costs for health care, medicine and energy bills by making corporations pay the taxes they owe, without raising taxes on any of us making under $400,000 a year,\u201d the ad\u2019s narrator says<\/a>.<\/p>\n The second set of climate-focused ads are targeted to younger voters. They will air on cable channels like Comedy Central, MTV and AdultSwim, all with an eye toward drawing back in under 30 voters who have soured on the Biden administration, after turning out at historic levels for Democrats in 2018 and 2020.<\/p>\n \u201cStorms are stronger, the fires are bigger,\u201d the ad\u2019s narrator says. \u201cWe are facing a climate emergency, and after decades of inaction, a president is finally doing something to fight it.\u201c<\/p>\n