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Democratic Group to Spend $186 Million Aiming to Win Back House Majority

Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) speaks to reporters while walking to a meeting with House Democrats in the Capitol in Washington on Thursday, Nov. 17, 2022. (New York Times)
Maya King New York Times

House Majority PAC, the Democratic super political action committee allied with Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., the House minority leader, said Sunday that it would spend $186 million on television and digital advertisements for this year’s elections – the largest early investment in the group’s history.

The hefty expenditure will cover 58 media markets in 45 districts, targeting Republican seats in districts that President Joe Biden carried in 2020 as well as Democratic seats in districts that former President Donald Trump won. As part of that spending plan, $40 million will go toward digital advertisements, the group said Sunday. Details of the ad buy were first shared with CNN.

In an interview Sunday, the House Majority PAC president, Mike Smith, described the group’s plan for this election year as “an offensive strategy.” Democrats need to win just four seats to clinch a House majority, and they have said that doing so depends on races in New York and California. The group is spending the most in those states to unseat vulnerable Republican freshmen and to maintain the ample – and costly – messaging needed to break through to voters.

“The significant investment is the seriousness of which we are taking this election,” Smith said. “The core districts that are going to make or break whether or not Democrats win or lose the majority this fall are kind of consolidated, and a lot of them take place in the most expensive media markets in the country.”

Smith also noted that the group had invested early in advertisements in states such as Ohio, Montana and Michigan, where there are a handful of competitive U.S. Senate races and tight margins for the presidential race. It is particularly focused on appealing to voters in districts with substantial Black, Hispanic or Asian American populations, in addition to swing districts.

Cash-flush Democrats are doling out hefty sums to protect vulnerable candidates before a tough election in November. Atop the ticket, Biden and his allies have outraised Republicans so far: Biden’s reelection campaign said it had $192 million on hand, a sum that includes funds raised by the national party and allied groups. As Trump fought to close the fundraising gap, his campaign boasted of a $50 million haul from a high-dollar fundraiser he hosted Saturday in Palm Beach, Florida. ​

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.