Top-to-bottom GOP groups and campaigns produced 93 separate TV ads mentioning inflation, spending $13 million on more than 30,000 airings from the start of 2021 through Thursday. By comparison, their Democratic counterparts produced just two ads mentioning inflation, spending about $600,000 for 1,700 airplays, according to a CNN analysis of AdImpact data.
In their ads, Republicans blame the policies of President Joe Biden and the Democrats in Washington for the inflation, which is at its highest level since 1982.
One Nation, a GOP group, is targeting Democratic senators in key states such as Arizona, Nevada and New Hampshire with an ad filled with inflation clips, saying, “Inflation is killing us. reckless spending.”
Another GOP group, Building America’s Future, is running ads in a series of competitive House and Senate races, warning that “inflation is spiraling out of control, prices are rising from cars to gas, groceries and to public services”. And American Action Network, a conservative group, is running ads in several races about “record inflation”, calling it a “hidden tax on the working class“.
Republican candidates for the U.S. Senate in key races across the country have also put inflation front and center.
In Arizona, Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly faces a competitive re-election campaign, and Republican challenger Jim Lamon accuses the senator in one of his ads of causing “runaway inflation” by supporting Biden’s agenda. Lamon first faces a crowded GOP primary that includes state Attorney General Mark Brnovich, venture capitalist Blake Masters and retired Air Force Maj. Gen. Mick McGuire.
In the race to replace retired Ohio GOP Sen. Rob Portman, Republican Mike Gibbons — a self-funded candidate pouring millions into his candidacy — has an ad that reads, “It’s rumbling through our lives, inflation “Biden’s rampant run. We’re paying a heavy price, and the politicians are entirely to blame.” The competitive GOP primary also includes former state party chairwoman Jane Timken, state senator and Cleveland Guardians co-owner Matt Dolan, author JD Vance and former state treasurer Josh Mandel.
In another key Senate race, Pennsylvania Republican Mehmet Oz is spending millions on his ads saying “Biden’s reckless spending has caused inflation.” GOP Sen. Pat Toomey’s retirement to the battleground state has drawn a long list of contenders for his seat, including former hedge fund manager David McCormick and Trump-era ambassador Carla Sands of the side of the GOP, and state Lt. Governor John Fetterman and the United States. Rep. Conor Lamb on the Democratic side.
And in Missouri, U.S. Representative Billy Long — a former auctioneer who is running in the disputed Republican primary to retire from the seat of GOP Sen. Roy Blunt which also includes the ex-governor. Eric Greitens and US Rep. Vicky Hartzler — remarks on inflation in one of her campaign spots. “Now we have Biden and the far-left crazies letting inflation rise faster than an auctioneer churning out numbers,” he says.
Wisconsin GOP Senator Ron Johnson, who is up for re-election this fall in a state Biden carried in 2020, warns in an ad that “because of open borders, rising crime and rising inflation, Democratic policies are weakening America.”
Democrats — who currently control the White House and both houses of Congress — have referenced inflation much less often in their midterm ads. Alex Lasry, a potential challenger to Johnson in Wisconsin, confronts the problem in one of his advertisements: “The backlog of the supply chain. The hustle and bustle of inflation. Here’s an idea. If we make things here in America, supply chain issues won’t be a thing anymore.”
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