WASHINGTON — Democratic campaign committees, PACs and groups aligned with the party are shelling out more than $125 million in battleground states as part of an unprecedented drive to make abortion a key election issue.
The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC) will roll out a month-long ad blitz in the coming days, a spokesperson confirmed Wednesday to The Post, with shots at Republicans timed to coincide with the second anniversary of the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade.
The main campaign arm for Senate Democrats would not confirm the amount of the ad spend, which was first reported by Axios.
A spokesperson for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC), which serves House members, told The Post the committee will be holding vulnerable Republicans in New York and across the country accountable for their “extreme anti-choice record.”
On Wednesday, the ACLU also announced $25 million for a Voter Education Fund aimed at “protecting and expanding abortion and voting rights up and down the ballot” through direct mail, digital ads and other organization efforts.
Those will include spending on abortion-related ballot measures in the swing states of Arizona and Nevada, as well as in Montana, Nebraska, Colorado, Missouri, Florida and New York.
“This is the most amount of money that we’ve spent in an election cycle,” ACLU chief political and advocacy officer Deirdre Schifeling told NBC News, which first reported the group’s spending.
Last week, the House Majority PAC announced $100 million for a Reproductive Freedom Accountability Fund to fuel ad buys and get-out-the-vote efforts in critical swing districts.
The PAC’s overall television and digital ad placements will top $186 million for the 2024 cycle — the group’s largest spending on record.
Three US Senate seats held by Democrats are listed as toss-ups, according to the nonpartisan Cook Political Report, while the House of Representatives registers the same rating for 11 seats held by each party.
Democrats currently hold a 51-49 majority in the Senate, while Republicans have a 218-213 House majority with four vacancies.
The National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) issued a memo in March urging candidates to lean into discussing abortion on the campaign trail, saying the Grand Old Party is suffering from a “brand problem, not a policy problem,” according to a memo first reported by the Journal.
That followed less-than-impressive results by Republican candidates in the 2022 midterm elections.
GOP-allied groups like Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America have also encouraged the party to “go on offense” on messaging in eight battleground states — Arizona, Georgia, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, Ohio and Montana — before November.
In a Wednesday memo, the group said, “Democrats and their abortion industry allies will accept nothing less than abortion on demand without limit, paid for by taxpayers,” urging candidates to highlight the contrast rather than adopting the “ostrich strategy” of the midterms.
Those efforts have been complicated by former President Donald Trump, who has not shied away from criticizing his own party over the issue, even as he appointed three conservative Supreme Court justices who voted to strike down Roe.
The Post scooped last month that the Federal Election Commission (FEC) had approved an advisory opinion allowing unlimited foreign and outside funding for state-level PACs and nonprofits that are spending on abortion-related ballot initiatives.
The National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) submitted a comment to the FEC ahead of time that argued the rule would directly influence candidates’ elections and invite “a flood of foreign contributions into the American political system.”
Individual candidates and their fundraising committees are barred from accepting any so-called “dark money” or foreign donations under federal campaign finance law.
Colorado, South Dakota and Florida have confirmed ballot referenda for the general election to expand abortion access, while advocates in five other states — including Arizona and Nevada — are in the process of gathering signatures.
Just seven states have laws preventing foreign money from going toward ballot initiatives, according to Ballotpedia.
