Editorial credit: Consolidated News Photos / Shutterstock.com
BY BRETT SAMUELS
Source: thehill.com, January 2024
A prominent Democratic super PAC announced Friday that it plans to spend $200 million on the 2024 election cycle, including $140 million on television, digital, streaming, radio and mail advertisements.
American Bridge 21st Century intends to focus much of its firepower on winning over women voters in key swing states, a nod to the importance of that voting bloc in the outcome of November’s elections.
“Another Donald Trump presidency would mean disaster for Americans who value their rights,” the group’s founder, Bradley Beychok, said in a statement. “We know exactly how to beat Donald Trump. We’ve done it before, and our paid media strategy is a big part of how we’re going to do it again.
American Bridge intends to run paid programming, focus on opposition research and push back against third-party candidates who could increase the likelihood former President Trump wins back the White House.
The group said it already has raised $85 million as of this month.
Its $140 million paid media program will target Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania and potentially North Carolina. Biden won the first three states in 2020 and will likely need to do so again in 2024 to hold the White House.
The ads American Bridge will run will focus on women voters in particular in the aftermath of the Supreme Court’s June 2022 decision to strike down Roe v. Wade, which has led to a slew of restrictive of abortion policies in conservative states.
The ads “will feature the true stories of women voters and their families living in these key swing states and will use their voices to expose the truth about Donald Trump’s agenda,” American Bridge said in a press release.
The group said it has recruited hundreds of people living in the swing states it will target who can speak to how another Trump administration would adversely affect their lives.
“The last time Donald Trump was in the White House, he made it his mission to overturn Roe and strip the right of millions of Americans to make their own decisions about their pregnancies — and he was successful,” American Bridge 21st Century Co-Chair Cecile Richards said in a statement.
“We’re leaving no stone unturned and making sure that voters — especially women voters — in these key states know just how much is at stake in November,” she added.
American Bridge’s efforts reflect a wider focus for Democrats heading into 2024, where they plan to make abortion a central issue in the race for the White House, as well as down ballot races.
In the roughly two years since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, Democrats have grown their Senate majority by a seat, lost fewer seats than expected in the House, seen ballot measures protecting abortion access pass in states like Kansas and Ohio, and retained control of the governor’s mansion in Kentucky, a reliably red state.
