Democrats splurge on ads for tough Senate battle

As we look ahead to a Biden-Trump rematch, the map for Senate remains filled with uncertainty, and the Senate Democrats’ super PAC is making major money moves with the “largest ad reservations in Senate history,” according to the group.

Senate Majority PAC’s total ad reservations for the fall currently amount to $239 million, as first reported by the Washington Post. It’s a wise move, as the early bird typically gets the cheaper ad buy rate. The ads are booked to run in seven states: Nevada, Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin, Arizona, Pennsylvania and Montana. SMP’s president said they will focus on “a woman’s access to abortion, healthcare coverage for preexisting conditions and the preservation and strengthening of Medicare and Social Security.”

Notable omissions include West Virginia, which has fallen completely off the map following Senator Joe Manchin’s retirement, and Maryland, which former GOP governor Larry Hogan hopes to flip (Hogan’s entry into the race at the last possible minute was a major recruitment coup for Republicans). 

This massive spending plan comes after SMP wasted millions of dollars trying to meddle in the Republican Senate primary in Montana, the home state of the National Republican Senatorial Committee chair, Steve Daines. The Spectator previously reported on SMP’s extensive ties to a sketchy group that was trying to tank likely GOP nominee Tim Sheehy before November’s general election. Those plans imploded when Sheehy’s top challenger, Congressman Matt Rosendale, dropped his bid for Senate under suspicious circumstances. The SMP-tied group lit millions on fire on this fruitless scheme. 

“Chuck Schumer and his liberal billionaire allies are staring down their worst Senate map in a decade, so they are panicking and pouring cash into Super PACs to smear Republican candidates,” NRSC spokesman Phil Letsou said.

Senate Republicans have their own problems, as they squabble over who will succeed Mitch McConnell and generally reshuffle their leadership positions. Senator Joni Ernst is challenging Tom Cotton for Senate GOP conference chair as John Thune and John Cornyn seem poised to battle it out for the minority or majority leader slot. Rick Scott, Steve Daines and Rand Paul have also had their names come up as potentially less establishment alternatives to the two “Johns,” as they’re known. 

Even as McConnell eyes greener pastures as he steps down from leadership, he is not taking a Senate majority for granted. His Senate Leadership Fund , SMP’s GOP counterpart, has already earmarked over $100 million in states such as Montana and Ohio.

Meanwhile, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer is signaling that his priorities are, for now, preserving incumbent Democrats. Only in Arizona is there a clear flip opportunity for Democrats, with Independent senator Kyrsten Sinema announcing plans to retire. 

Other than Montana, the SMP ad buys are all in presidential battleground states — and some of the likely targets tell The Spectator they’re eager to face the barrage. “Chuck Schumer can’t buy this seat,” former congressman Mike Rogers, the leading GOP primary candidate in Michigan, said. Regarding Schumer’s $14 million reservation in Wisconsin, NRSC spokesman Tate Mitchell said that it shows that “Chuck Schumer and Tammy Baldwin are clearly terrified of Eric Hovde.” And a spokeswoman for the GOP’s Ohio frontrunner, Bernie Moreno, said that “it’s not [a] surprise that the lobbyists and DC elites in the swamp are spending so much money to try and save their number one yes-man, Sherrod Brown.”

The Democratic incumbents running for reelection in these states have mostly skated by in some of the best elections for Democrats the millennium. Time, and the outcome of GOP primaries across the country, will tell how easy their paths are in November. But, a quarter-billion bucks of Schumer ads probably can’t hurt.

-Matthew Foldi

On our radar

NO HUMAN IS ILLEGAL? President Joe Biden apologized for referring to nursing student Laken Riley’s killer as an “illegal” during his State of the Union address, telling MSNBC’s Jonathan Capehart that he should have said “undocumented.” 

‘REJECT AIPAC’ Twenty-six left-wing activist groups are seeking to counter the pro-Israel lobby by financially backing any candidate who draws opposition from AIPAC. 

PETER IN PRISON Former Trump advisor Peter Navarro was ordered to report to a Miami prison to serve his four-month sentence for contempt of Congress. Navarro was convicted last year after refusing to comply with subpoenas related to the congressional investigation of the January 6 Capitol riot. 

Orbán’s Trump slip 

“He will not give a penny in the Ukraine-Russia war. That is why the war will end,” said Viktor Orbán, Hungary’s prime minister, after meeting Donald Trump in his Florida home Friday night.

The statement is making news because despite the former president’s pledge to end the war “within twenty-four hours,” he has never publicly stated that he would stop funding Ukraine’s effort. In fact, at the Conservative Political Action Conference this year, he went after Biden for being too soft on Vladimir Putin.

Even though Trump has taken an anti-interventionist stance on other world conflicts, he has notably avoided any statements suggesting a withdrawal of US support in Ukraine. Last month he suggested Congress break a stalemate on a foreign aid package by conditioning the Ukraine assistance as a loan. Orbán’s comments could have let the cat out of the bag on where Trump really stands, but support among the American electorate for financially supporting Ukraine has been declining for months anyway.

The prime minister labeled Trump a “a man of peace,” arguing that, “if the Americans don’t give money and weapons, along with the Europeans, the war is over. And if the Americans don’t give money, the Europeans alone can’t finance this war. And then the war is over.”

–Juan P. Villasmil

Shaming Stephanopoulos

Representative Nancy Mace accused George Stephanopoulos of trying to “shame” her on his ABC show This Week when he asked how the South Carolina congresswoman can justify her endorsement of Donald Trump when judges have found the former president liable for rape.

Mace responded to Stephanopoulos by saying:

I will tell you that I was raped at the age of sixteen, and any rape victim will tell you I’ve lived for thirty years with an incredible amount of shame. I didn’t come forward because of that judgment and shame that I felt, and it’s a shame that you will never feel, George, and I’m not going to sit here on your show and be asked a question meant to shame me about another potential rape victim. I’m not going to do that.

Mace doubled down throughout the interview as Stephanopoulos continued to press her to condemn Trump, at one point telling the ABC host, “As a rape victim who’s been shamed for years now because of her rape, you’re trying to shame me again.”

“Mace based her argument on two main points,” reports Politico. “That Trump was not convicted in a criminal trial (as opposed to a civil trial) and that E. Jean Carroll, who has been awarded millions in lawsuits against Trump, deserved condemnation for the way in which she spoke about the money she was awarded.”

Carroll, remember, joked that she would use her $83.3 million defamation payout from suing Trump to go “shopping, get a completely new wardrobe, new shoes and buy a penthouse.”

–Teresa Mull

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