Pro-impeachment group targets GOP senators with $3.1 million ad buy

A pro-impeachment group is targeting GOP senators in battleground states with a round of ads as they try to build pressure on Republicans to break with President Trump in the growing battle.

Need to Impeach, which is mainly funded by Democratic presidential candidate Tom Steyer, announced that it would run $3.1 million in TV and digital ads against Republicans in a number of key races.

{mosads}The group will target Sens. Martha McSally (R-Ariz.), Cory Gardner (R-Colo.), Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) and Susan Collins (R-Maine) over the next two weeks, while lawmakers are back in their home states for the recess. 

“More and more voters are realizing in this moment that politicians cannot represent Americans if they don’t represent American values. And there’s no job more important for U.S. Senators than standing up for the constitution,” Nathaly Arriola, the executive director of Need to Impeach, said in a statement. 

More than half of the group’s ad buy will go toward TV ads, which are expected to start airing Thursday. The rest will go to digital ads, which are starting immediately. 

The push to target Senate Republicans comes after the House launched a formal impeachment inquiry last week, raising the chances that impeachment articles could be sent to the Senate. 

No Republican senator has said they would support impeachment, or even that they support on impeachment inquiry.

A CNBC All-America Economic Survey released on Monday found that 47 percent of respondents oppose impeachment, compared with 44 percent who approve.

But 88 percent of surveyed Republicans, according to the same poll, oppose impeaching Trump.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said earlier this week that he would have “no choice” but to take up impeachment if the House sends over articles.

“Well under the Senate rules we’re required to take it up if the House does go down that path and we’ll follow the Senate rules,” McConnell said during an interview with CNBC.