New ad campaign targets five House Democrats over inflation

A conservative group focused on combating President Biden’s economic agenda on Thursday launched a $100,000 ad campaign targeting five Democratic lawmakers over rising consumer prices.

The Coalition to Protect American Workers, a group led by former Vice President Mike Pence’s former chief of staff, Marc Short, is running the ads digitally in the home districts of five moderate House Democrats who have expressed reservations at times about the president’s $1.75 trillion social and economic spending plan.

The ads target Reps. Stephanie Murphy (D-Fla.), Ed Case (D-Hawaii), Jared Golden (D-Maine), Josh Gottheimer (D.N.J.) and Kurt Schrader (D-Ore.).

The 30-second ad focuses on the issue of inflation, with a voiceover saying Biden “doesn’t understand just how bad inflation is hurting Americans” as excerpts from news reports about consumer prices and the cost of his spending plan appear on the screen.

“If congressional Democrats don’t stop Biden and Pelosi’s plan, a lot of Americans won’t be able to pay their heating bills this winter,” the ad warns.

The same five lawmakers were targeted by a Club for Growth ad campaign urging them to oppose passage of the Build Back Better plan working its way through Congress.

The latest ad campaign was launched one day after the Labor Department released statistics showing consumer prices grew far faster than expected in October and that annual inflation had hit a 30-year high.

The consumer price index, which tracks inflation for a range of staple goods and services, rose 0.9 percent last month and 6.2 percent in the 12-month period ending in October. The rise in prices was driven largely by a 4.8 percent increase in energy costs and a 0.9 percent increase in food prices.

“Our polling has consistently shown that inflation and rising prices are top concerns for voters across the country. As prices rise, consumers know that unnecessary government spending is not the way to reduce inflation. President Biden’s tax and spending plan will exacerbate the inflation crisis and make it worse for Americans at home,” Katie Miller, a spokesperson for the Coalition to Protect American Workers, said in a statement.

Biden and White House officials have argued passage of the $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill last week, paired with passage of a larger reconciliation bill with funding for climate programs, health care expansion, family and child care tax credits and education initiatives will help lift many Americans out of poverty and ease inflation. They have insisted the plan is paid for and will not further stress the debt.

But some moderate Democrats, including a few of those targeted by The Coalition to Protect American Workers, have expressed unease about moving forward too quickly with such a larger spending package with prices rising sharply.

Murphy, Golden and Case were among the final holdouts among Democrats who eventually backed a compromise to pass the infrastructure bill last week while agreeing to move forward with the larger reconciliation framework this month.