On The Hill

TAKING BACK THE SENATE: GOP Preparing $100M Ad Blitz to Retake Upper Chamber; Report

posted by Hannity Staff - 6.20.24

The National Republican Senatorial Committee is readying a $100 million dollar ad blitz with hopes of taking back the upper chamber in November, POLITICO confirms.

From POLITICO:

The NRSC will begin placing reservations for independent expenditures on Thursday in four states: Ohio, Nevada, Michigan and Arizona. The committee described the buys as “multimillion dollar” investments in TV and digital but declined to specify the total size of them or the breakdown per state.

Republicans will need to maximize the use of their dollars as they try to win back the Senate. They will gain control if they flip just one additional seat in addition to the near-guaranteed pickup in West Virginia following the retirement of Sen. Joe Manchin (I-W.Va.) (The NRSC recruited West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice into that race and does not expect to need to spend in it.)

But to build a sizable majority, Republicans will have to go through several cash-rich Democratic incumbents who have built strong independent brands and proven themselves to be formidable fundraisers. The GOP has long faced a massive fundraising gap with Democrats — a disparity they partially blame for losing the chamber in 2020 and failing to recapture it in 2022.

This cycle, party operatives cobbled together a new strategy to overcome it.

A key aspect of the GOP plan was recruiting wealthy candidates who can inject their own fortunes — and those of their wealthy friends — into their campaigns. The NRSC landed such candidates in Ohio, Montana, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. A second crucial piece is a heavy reliance on joint TV ad buys between the campaign arm and the candidates. Campaign finance law allows them to place a large ad buy together — and, crucially, pay the cheaper rate offered only to candidates — by making a “hybrid ad” that supports both a candidate and a political party. For example, such an ad in Ohio would need to attack both Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown and the Democratic Party as a whole. The ads can be awkward to deploy effectively, but they allow for cheaper ads of which the NRSC only pays a portion.

“Joe Biden’s extreme unpopularity has given us a chance to build a lasting Senate Majority,” said NRSC Executive Director Jason Thielman. “Now it is incumbent on our candidates to execute.”

More over at POLITICO:

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