McConnell-aligned group targeting Kelly, Cortez Masto and Hassan with $10M ad campaign

An outside GOP group allied with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) is launching a new $10 million ad blitz targeting three of the Democratic Party’s most vulnerable senators next year.

The broadside from One Nation, the advocacy arm of the Senate Leadership Fund, the Senate GOP’s top super PAC, is launching television, radio and digital ads knocking Sens. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.), Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.) and Maggie Hassan (D-N.H.).

The ad sprint takes specific aim at Democrats’ social spending bill, which is still being negotiated, but One Nation said would result in “the largest tax increase in decades.”

All three ads look to tie the lawmakers to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) as well as other prominent figures in the Democratic Party, including President Biden and progressive Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.). The ads appear to suggest the infrastructure endeavor is being pushed by party leaders and that the three targeted lawmakers are falling into line. 

“It’ll cost you, with the largest tax increase in decades crushing small businesses and making families pay more,” said the ad targeting Cortez Masto. “Tell Senator Cortez Masto to oppose Speaker Pelosi’s unaffordable, outrageous tax-and-spend agenda.” 

The ad targeting Kelly also compares him to Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.), who has been adamant about her desire to lower the price tag of the spending package.

The ad blitz comes as Democrats’ internal divide continues regarding the size of the proposal. Progressives had tried to stick to a $3.5 trillion price tag, but Sinema and moderate Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) have refused to vote for a package of that amount.

“The timing of this coincides with what we see as rising chaos and disagreement about the scope of the bill, and we think there is opportunity to mobilize public opinion against the legislation,” One Nation President Steven Law said. “The infighting, we think, has created opportunities to weaken or stop it.” 

The ad blitz was first reported by The Washington Post.

The spending package has been the focus of millions of dollars in spending for lawmakers of each party, with a wave of Republican groups bashing the plan while Democratic outside groups have urged lawmakers to pass some form of it. 

Though it’s early in the 2022 cycle, Republicans have forecasted that they plan on hitting Democrats over the bill in the midterms as part of a message over the party’s expansive spending proposals.