A major Democratic super PAC hopes to stretch the midterm battleground map by kicking off a roughly $50 million advertising campaign targeting Republicans in more than a dozen House districts and four Senate races, most of them in traditionally Republican areas.
The amount is the most ever spent in a midterm election by American Bridge, which has spent the past year studying the concerns of working-class voters and their media consumption habits and sees a rare opening for Democrats as President Trump’s approval rating plunges.
Bradley Beychok, the president of American Bridge, said in an interview that Republicans were vulnerable in parts of the country that had been exceedingly tough terrain for Democrats in recent elections.
“We’re going to Republican territory and planting a flag,” Mr. Beychok said in an interview. “These Republicans are in a world of hurt.”
He summarized his mantra: “Your opponent’s drowning. We need to throw them an anvil.”
Of the 14 House races the group is initially targeting, 11 are rated by the Cook Political Report as likely or even solidly Republican.
“We should take a wider lens to what’s competitive,” he said. “The last thing we would want is to wake up the day after Election Day and Democrats have a good night but it could have been a better night if you would have invested in some places.”
The group’s initial target list includes four seats in North Carolina, where Republicans last year redrew the state’s congressional lines for their benefit. Notably, American Bridge is taking aim at the lawmaker who is overseeing House Republican strategy, Representative Richard Hudson, who is the chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee.
Among the longest shots the group said it planned to invest in this year was the Mississippi Senate race, where Scott Colom, a Democratic state prosecutor, is challenging Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith, the Republican incumbent who had previously blocked Mr. Colom’s appointment to the federal bench.
“We’re investing in these races because they’re hard,” Mr. Beychok said, noting that much of the spending would come soon to try to put more races into play by fall.
American Bridge spent much of the past year on what it called the Working Class Project, which involved researching the frustrations and priorities of working-class voters. The effort has also identified individuals affected by Republican policies who can be featured in ads.
The advertising blitz is set to begin in Iowa, where officials said they planned to spend $2.8 million by the end of summer and $800,000 in the next three weeks.
The first two House seats being targeted are the generally competitive seat of Representative Mariannette Miller-Meeks, a Republican who has previously won re-election by narrow margins, and the open seat of Representative Ashley Hinson, who is running for Senate. American Bridge is targeting the state’s Senate race as well.
The group also plans to invest in the Michigan and Alaska Senate races, which are among the nation’s most competitive. The other House seats include two districts in Michigan (the Fourth and the 10th), one in Pennsylvania (the Eighth), two in Colorado (the Third and the Fifth), two in Texas (the 15th and the 23rd) and one in Ohio (the Seventh).
The group is planning television, radio, streaming and digital ads as well as direct mail. The ads will focus on economic issues including the cost of living and tariffs, the group said.
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