House Democrats’ campaign arm rolls out first ad on COVID-19 relief package

House Democrats’ campaign arm rolled out the group’s first digital ad blitz in key battleground districts touting the $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package, underscoring the party’s strategy to rally around the new law.

The 35-second ad from the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) praises Democrats in swing seats who “delivered for us by passing the American Rescue Plan. “

“It’s a bold, decisive plan to provide direct stimulus payments to families, support for Americans out of work, and funding to speed up vaccine distribution. It would cut child poverty nearly in half, help re-open schools, and be a lifeline for small businesses,” a narrator says. “Thank you for getting the job done to re-open our schools and get us back to work.”

The ads mark another prong of Democrats’ public relations blitz to tout the legislation, which contains measures like $1,400 stimulus checks for millions of Americans, expanded unemployment benefits and funds for school reopenings that poll well across the country.

The DCCC said the videos, which started running Friday, are “the first of many investments the DCCC will make to highlight House Democrats’ victories for hardworking American families, teachers, firefighters and public safety officers, workers, and small business owners.” The ads will run in 32 swing districts held by Democrats. 

“Long after Republicans gave up on working families, Democrats kept fighting and won. Millions of working families will now see their lives made better with more money in their family budgets, reopened small businesses and safe schools, and free life-saving vaccines for all,” DCCC Chairman Sean Patrick Maloney (D-N.Y.) said.

“Soon, millions of Americans will begin receiving economic relief to support their families as we build back from the impacts of COVID-19 on our daily lives,” he added. “That help comes with no thanks to Republicans in Congress. House Democrats are going to shout this good news for the American people from the rooftops.”

The DCCC’s ad blitz joins others from Democratic groups hoping to ride a high approval rating for the package to victory in the 2022 midterms.

Priorities USA, a super PAC that backed Biden during the 2020 elections, this week rolled out a “multimillion dollar campaign” to distribute ads on the package. Unite the Country, another pro-Biden super PAC, is also launching its own ad effort.

Democrats have already said they plan on keeping the package front and center in the 20-month stretch to the midterms, claiming that the party did not do enough to tout the 2009 stimulus package before the 2010 midterms, when Democrats lost the House. 

“We didn’t adequately explain what we had done,” Biden told House Democrats last week regarding the 2009 stimulus package. “Barack was so modest, he didn’t want to take, as he said, a ‘victory lap.’ I kept saying, ‘Tell people what we did.’ He said, ‘We don’t have time. I’m not going to take a victory lap.’ And we paid a price for it, ironically, for that humility.”