A Democratic group that previously focused on presidential races is wading into the midterms by targeting more than a dozen House and Senate contests, many of them on Republican turf, in a new advertising campaign that begins Tuesday.
American Bridge 21st Century's $50 million effort adds financial firepower to Democrats' attempt to flip control of Congress in the midterm elections. The party has struggled to match Republicans' fundraising, and it
has lost ground in a nationwide redistricting battle that President Donald Trump initiated last year.
“We really have to maximize our wins and gains this year, particularly in Republican territory,” American Bridge co-founder Bradley Beychok said. “We are going all in.”
American Bridge, known for its opposition research, has been escalating its own advertising efforts. During the last presidential election, it announced plans to spend $140 million in an attempt to siphon away Trump's support among rural voters.
Beychok said the idea for the midterms campaign was seeded last year, when he attended an inauguration rally and saw the slogan “Trump will fix it.”
"Trump made a big promise to these working-class voters that he was gonna bring down costs," Beychok said. Now it's clear, he said, “that Trump and Republicans really broke that covenant.”
The House seats American Bridge is targeting are in Colorado, Iowa, Michigan, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Texas. On the Senate side, they’re getting involved in races in Alaska, Iowa, Michigan and Mississippi.
The group passed on Senate races in states like Maine, North Carolina and Texas because it doesn't expect those to lack resources.
The campaign will involve digital ads, streaming audio and television, social media, direct mail and radio.
Beychok said the organization is learning to focus on issues at a “visceral level," and featuring specific voters so they can offer firsthand accounts of their experiences with the economy.
Making the pitch in American Bridge ads will be voters like Brad Singleton, a 50-year-old personal trainer from Walford, Iowa. Singleton said he was a Republican for 32 years until recently when dissatisfaction with the president led him to change registrations to Democratic.
For Singleton, the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot was the start of his changing view of the president, who he said “threw a fit like a toddler” over the 2020 election results. But by 2024, he voted for Trump again, persuaded by the Make American Healthy Again movement.
“I immediately regretted it,” Singleton said. “Because of the economy, because of this war with Iran, because so many things that have happened."
“I feel like Donald Trump cares about himself and his millionaire buddies,” he added. "He does not care about me.”
Jill Kordick, 64, a retired health care administrator from Norwalk, Iowa, is another voter featured in the group's ads.
A registered independent, she described her political views as moderate to progressive. She said Trump's second term has spurred her to get more involved in politics, such as attending No Kings rallies and speaking up at meetings with lawmakers.
Kordick said she's aware how challenging it could be to flip Republican-leaning districts, and she's asking herself how best to bring people who feel like the president let them down to the Democrats' side.
“I don’t think it’s gonna be easy,” she said. “I think there has to be some way to invite people to the table so that they can feel better about how they vote and not feel so stuck or embarrassed by what they voted for in the past.”
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Catalini reported from Morrisville, Pennsylvania.
