A nonprofit aligned win Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Tuesday it would spend $27.3 million on television and radio advertising this summer in six states where Republicans are looking to keep their seats in the Senate.
One Nation will begin the ad campaign this month in Arizona, Colorado, Iowa, Maine, Montana and North Carolina. Incumbent Republican senators facing Democratic challengers in those states include Sens. Martha McSally of Arizona, Cory Gardner of Colorado, Joni Ernst of Iowa, Susan M. Collins of Maine, Steve Daines of Montana, and Thom Tillis of North Carolina.
“As our country faces unprecedented challenges, One Nation will be advocating for common-sense policies to protect families and communities, help struggling workers and businesses, and support our frontline health care professionals,” Steven Law, One Nation president, said in a statement. “If we can work together and not play partisan games, we’ll be able to get through this crisis and help Americans get back on their feet.”
The gruop will begin its ad buys in three states June 23, including $5.3 million in Iowa, $3.9 million in Montana and $10.2 million in North Carolina. In July, One Nation will kickstart ad buys in Colorado, where it will spend $2.6 million, and in Maine, where it plans to spend $1.9 million. One Nation’s $3.3 million ad buy in Arizona begins in August.
The group’s main rival on the left is Majority Forward, a nonprofit aligned with Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer. Majority Forward has spent millions of dollars in recent months in many of the states One Nation is targeting, including $2.9 million in Arizona, Maine and Michigan, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. In Michigan, incumbent Democrat Sen. Gary Peters is facing a Republican challenger, John James.
Nonprofit groups that are not required to disclose their donors are already making their presence felt in the 2020 races. Most of the TV ads in the presidential and congressional races since the beginning of 2020 came from groups that are not required to reveal their donors, according to a Wesleyan Media Project analysis with the Center for Responsive Politics that studied ad spending through May 10.
Maine and North Carolina saw the most political spending and ads from those types of nonprofits. The groups spent more than $9.6 million on nearly 23,000 ads in Maine through May 10, while they spent nearly $11 million on more than 18,000 ads in North Carolina in the same timeframe, according to the Wesleyan Media Project analysis.
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