From rural Wisconsin Trump country to California’s heavily Catholic Central Valley, there’s almost no place where Democrats think an abortion rights-focused message won’t play — and they are betting their House majority on it.
Democratic candidates, their party’s campaign arm and allied super PACs have spent nearly $18 million to air more than 100 abortion-centered broadcast TV ads in some four dozen battleground seats as of the end of September, according to a POLITICO analysis of data from AdImpact, a media tracking firm. That sum is already three times more than what Democrats spent on abortion ads during the entire 2018 general election.
Even amid an onslaught of GOP attacks on inflation and the economy, Democrats are banking that a rollback of rights for half the U.S. population is precisely the dynamic they must stress to voters in the high-stakes election. In both money and messaging, it’s where the party is focusing in the final stretch before the Nov. 8 midterms.
“It is a defining issue,” said endangered Rep. Dan Kildee (D-Mich.), who is running a spot featuring a rape survivor who needed a lifesaving abortion. “My position and my opponent’s couldn’t be more stark. People should know this is a guy who thinks he has the right to tell a woman what to do after she’s raped.”
Kildee is among dozens of Democrats in the most competitive districts who are flooding the airwaves with abortion-focused TV ads, a sign of just how potent they believe this attack will be in their underdog bid to keep control of the House. And it’s not just candidates themselves: At least seven super PACs have centered ad messaging on abortion rights, as has the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. Outside groups devoted more than 40 percent of their total broadcast TV spending to running abortion ads, according to AdImpact.
