They have spent more than $2 million on ads targeting Sen. But Democrats are plowing ahead, particularly in key Senate races. There are risks to focusing so heavily on abortion at a moment when Americans are also expressing intense anxiety over the economy. The landslide defeat of that measure, particularly in a traditionally conservative state, has only further emboldened Democratic strategists and candidates. The 2022 advertising figures do not include money spent on the recent anti-abortion rights referendum in Kansas. And in the closest Senate and governor’s contests, Republicans have spent virtually nothing countering the Democratic offensive.īy contrast, in the last midterms four years ago, Democrats spent less than $1 million on ads that mentioned abortion-related issues in the same time period. In the roughly 50 days since the Supreme Court’s ruling, Democrats have flooded the airwaves in many of the nation’s most closely watched contests, spending nearly eight times as much as Republicans have on ads talking about abortion - $31.9 million compared with $4.2 million, according to data from AdImpact, a media tracking firm. “It took an election that was going to be mostly about inflation and immigration and made it also about abortion.” “Rarely has an issue been handed on a silver platter to Democrats that is so clear-cut,” said Anna Greenberg, a Democratic pollster working with multiple 2022 campaigns. In this case, although Democrats control the White House and both chambers of Congress, it is one of their top policy priorities - access to abortion - that has been most visibly stripped away. In the fallout of the ruling, Democrats see the potential to upend the typical dynamic of midterm elections in which voters punish the party in power. They say it has not only reawakened the party’s progressive base but also provided a wedge issue that could wrest away independent voters and even some Republican women who believe opponents of abortion have overreached. With national protections for abortion rights suddenly gone and bans going into effect in many states, senior White House officials and top Democratic strategists believe the issue has radically reshaped the 2022 landscape in their favor. Digital Replica Edition Home Page Close MenuĪll across the U.S., Democrats are using abortion as a powerful cudgel in their 2022 television campaigns, paying for an onslaught of ads in House, Senate and governor’s races that show how swiftly abortion politics have shifted since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v.

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