ICYMI: GOP Primary Ads Target Candidates’ Trump Loyalty, Personal Lives [Bloomberg]

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

Bloomberg: GOP Primary Ads Target Candidates’ Trump Loyalty, Personal Lives
By Kenneth P. Doyle
November 9, 2021

Key Points:

• Senate Republicans hoping to build on the party’s electoral success last week must first survive expensive, hard-hitting primaries in states that will decide which party holds the majority in 2023.

• Super PACs allied with GOP candidates in Arizona, North Carolina, Ohio, and Pennsylvania are already spending millions of dollars on spots that target fellow Republicans, months before primary voters go to the polls… The ads highlight questions of loyalty to Donald Trump, accusations of domestic violence, and alleged softness on illegal immigration.

• The ad campaigns could bruise the party’s eventual nominees long before competitive general-election contests have even begun, potentially hindering Republicans’ hopes of taking back control of the Senate in a favorable political environment.

• Jazmin Vargas, spokeswoman for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, said the Republican candidates’ attacks on each other “are alienating the voters who will decide the general election.” “Senate races have been defined by deeply flawed GOP candidates who are fighting with each other in nasty primaries and competing over who can suck up to Trump the most,” she said.

• In North Carolina, where Republicans hope to hold the seat of retiring Sen. Richard Burr, Club for Growth Action has allied with Rep. Ted Budd in the Senate GOP primary, running nearly $1.4 million worth of ads touting Trump’s endorsement of Budd. The super PAC’s ads also include messages attacking a Budd primary rival, former Gov. Pat McCrory, accusing him of approving “taxpayer subsidies for a company owned by the Chinese Communist Party.”

• There are also ads not focused on Trump, including in Pennsylvania, where Sen. Pat Toomey (R) is retiring. Sean Parnell, a GOP primary contender endorsed by the former president, is being hammered by TV and digital ads accusing him of trying to conceal evidence of domestic abuse. Jobs for Our Future, a super PAC allied with businessman Jeff Bartos, one of Parnell’s primary rivals, is spending $150,000 on ads that highlight Parnell’s problems, according to FEC reports.

• In Ohio, super PACs allied with former state Attorney General Josh Mandel (R) reported nearly $1 million worth of TV and digital ads attacking Hillbilly Elegy author J.D. Vance (R) for being a “Never Trumper.” Punching back is a pro-Vance super PAC funded by an initial $10 million donation by Silicon Valley mogul Peter Thiel, which reported spending over $2 million on digital ads, according to FEC reports.

• The anti-Vance messages by Club for Growth Action and USA Freedom Fund exacerbate a GOP primary that kicked off earlier this year with competition for Trump’s endorsement.

• Another Theil-funded super PAC is spending on ads in Arizona to help Blake Masters, who works for an investment firm and foundation headed by Thiel. The PAC, Saving Arizona, has aired attacks on Masters’ primary rival Mark Brnovich, the state’s attorney general.

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