A Democratic super PAC is launching a major summer ad blitz aimed at supporting Democrats running for Senate in six battleground states this November.
The Senate Majority PAC and its nonprofit arm Majority Forward have reserved $38 million in television ad time for this summer in Nevada, Arizona, Pennsylvania, Georgia, Wisconsin, and New Hampshire, according to details of the ad campaign obtained exclusively by CBS News.
The new ad campaign comes after the Democratic group made an initial reservation of more than $106 million for TV ads set to air in the fall. The summer ad push will focus on protecting vulnerable Senate Democrats in crucial battleground states and will aim to negatively define Republican candidates who are relatively unknown to voters.
“Senate Majority PAC’s latest investments in these key battleground states will ensure Democrats define the opposition early and often while forcing Republicans to defend bad candidates with badly damaged brands,” JB Poersch, president of Senate Majority PAC, said in a statement to CBS News. “We look forward to building on our momentum this summer with a wave of smart, strategic media that will lay the groundwork to defend our Democratic Senate Majority in November.”
The Senate races in Nevada, Arizona, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Georgia are all considered to be extremely competitive this fall. They are also expected to be costly campaigns, given the high stakes — each party is fighting for control the Senate, which is currently evenly split at 50-50.
On Friday, the super PAC’s first 2022 general-election ad aired in Las Vegas and Reno, attacking Adam Laxalt, the Republican nominee for Senate in Nevada. The 30-second TV spot, which features a small business owner and former Republican state legislator criticizing Laxalt as a candidate who represents big corporations, is part of a $5.8-million campaign that’ll air throughout the summer.
With the new ad blitz, the Senate Majority PAC has now reserved nearly $27 million for ad spending in Nevada, $33 million in Georgia, more than $27 million in Arizona, $32 million in Pennsylvania, $19 million in Wisconsin and nearly $4 million in New Hampshire. The Democratic group hopes the summer ad blitz will sway undecided voters ahead of the November election.
Earlier this year, the Senate Leadership Fund, a super PAC affiliated with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, announced it was placing more than $140 million advertising buys for the final stretch of the 2022 election.
The Republican group’s ads will also focus on Senate races in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Georgia, Arizona and Nevada, in addition to North Carolina and Alaska.
