WHAT THEY’RE SAYING: Johnson Is “Looking Out for His Own Interests,” “An Out-Of-Touch Millionaire” & “The Most Vulnerable Senator Facing Re-Election.”

A wave of news coverage following Ron Johnson’s announcement that he will break his “previous pledge to retire” is highlighting how his self-serving politics and record of hurting Wisconsin’s working families has made him “the most vulnerable Senator facing re-election.”

The DSCC welcomed Johnson into the race by immediately launching a digital and TV ad campaign that highlights how Johnson pushed for laws that enriched himself and helped his wealthy political donors, hurting Wisconsinites in the process.

Read more here:

• The Hill: “In the new ad, called ‘Himself,’ the DSCC describes Johnson as a self-serving politician who has pushed for laws that will benefit him and his wealthy political donors.”

• WISN: “The Democratic Party of Wisconsin wasting no time campaigning against Johnson. Democrats will post these two billboards tomorrow in four cities.”  

• Business Insider: “Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee spokeswoman Amanda Sherman Baity released a statement shortly after Johnson’s announcement, accusing the lawmaker of ‘doing nothing in the Senate except looking out for himself.’”

• MSNBC: “The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee wasted no time in releasing a new digital ad yesterday, targeting some of Johnson’s vulnerabilities, in a 30-second spot that’s already reaching Wisconsinites as part of an initial five-figure advertising campaign… It’s no exaggeration to say Johnson is easily the GOP’s most endangered Senate incumbent.”

• Newsweek: “The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee hit back at Johnson for breaking his pledge and painting him as an out-of-touch millionaire in their own campaign ads. These ads…, claim Johnson ‘has been looking out for himself.’”

• Washington Post (Opinion): “A better approach, Wikler said, might be to highlight Johnson’s vote for the 2017 GOP tax cut for the rich and corporations, his vote for repeal of the Affordable Care Act, and his votes against the massive covid-19 relief package and bipartisan infrastructure bill that passed this year. Another big vulnerability for Johnson, said Wikler, is a ProPublica expose reporting that Johnson maneuvered to get a tax break inserted into the 2017 GOP tax law that massively benefited two billionaire families that had contributed huge amounts to Johnson’s campaign.”

• Politico: “‘Ron Johnson has spent years in the Senate looking out for himself at the expense of Wisconsinites and failing to do the job he was elected to do, and it’s time to face the consequences,’ Democratic Party of Wisconsin Chair Ben Wikler tweeted Sunday morning.”

• Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: “Going into the 2022 mid-terms, Johnson has been generally viewed in Washington as the most vulnerable senator facing re-election, certainly the most vulnerable Republican.”

• New York Magazine: “Johnson will be a major target for Democrats. To put it simply, he’s not the sort of lawmaker that battleground states tend to elect.”

• New York Times: “Senator Ron Johnson… over the last year has become the Senate’s leading purveyor of misinformation about elections and the coronavirus pandemic…there is perhaps no major Republican official who has made more false claims.”

• Washington Post: “Johnson has become known for his embrace of outlandish conspiracy theories, particularly about the 2020 election and the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol… At a town hall last month, Johnson recommended gargling mouthwash as an effective treatment for the coronavirus, prompting Listerine to publicly state that it is ‘not clinically proven to kill the coronavirus that causes COVID-19.’”

• WISN: “Johnson has espoused conspiracy theories related to last year’s Capitol insurrection that attempted to shift blame for what happened away from Trump supporters. He has since downplayed the violence, saying it ‘didn’t seem like an armed insurrection to me.’”

Read more about how the DSCC is welcoming self-serving Johnson into the race here.

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