NEW YORK (AP) — President Donald Trump says he wants voters to pretend he’s on this year’s ballot. midterm elections.
His rivals do their best to defend his cause.
Democratic candidates and their allies have spent more than $163 million since Sept. 1 on television ads mentioning the Republican president, according to an Associated Press analysis of data from AdImpact, which tracks media spending.
That includes running ads referencing Trump on broadcast, cable and streaming nearly 180,000 times, the data shows. Republicans, meanwhile, ran ads about the president just 16,000 times, at an estimated cost of $11 million, during the same period.
It’s a notable silence about the party dominant Again unpopular chief.
Many Democratic ads accuse Republican opponents of siding with the president over voters, particularly on issues such as tariffs and the war in Iran, which they blame for driving up costs.
The ads include a campaign ad from Georgia Sen. Jon Ossoff, who is running for re-election and spent nearly $3 million on a Trump-focused ad attacking his rival, Rep. Mike Collins, for his close relationship with the president.
“Mike Collins voted for Trump’s war in Iran, causing gas prices to skyrocket. He voted for Trump’s tariffs, causing food prices to skyrocket. And Mike Collins voted with Trump to double health insurance premiums for more than a million Georgians,” it reads. “Mike Collins is siding with Donald Trump and making you pay more.”
Republican National Committee spokeswoman Natalie Baldassarre said the Democratic message reflected the party’s emptiness rather than its strength.
“Democrats are burning money talking about President Trump because they have no agenda other than investigation, obstruction and impeachment,” she said. “Trump Derangement Syndrome is not a political platform, it’s a $160 million way of saying you have nothing to offer the American people.”
Democrats link Trump and his allies to economic woes
Another ad from the House Majority PAC, a super PAC dedicated to electing Democrats to the House, opens with a middle-aged woman standing at her stove and talking about how her family is “barely getting by” before expressing her disappointment to Pennsylvania Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick, who is one of the most vulnerable Republican incumbents.
“He was an independent before. But now he seems to be aligned with Donald Trump. It really bothers me,” she said, adding: “Congressman Fitzpatrick is no longer for us.”
Indeed, every Democratic ad aired since September 1 in Pennsylvania’s hotly contested 1st Congressional District mentions Trump, even though Fitzpatrick voted against Trump’s tariffs and his authority to wage war on Iran without congressional approval.
The four ads talking about Trump were shown a total of 2,000 times during that period, according to AdImpact data. Fitzpatrick is being challenged by Democrat Bob Harvie, a county commissioner and former social studies teacher.
Democratic strategists say the message reflects voter sentiment.
“Every poll and focus group shows that affordability is voters’ number one issue, and they specifically point to corrupt politicians as being responsible for rising prices,” said Katarina Flicker, a spokeswoman for the parliamentary majority.
Republican ads move away from the president
Out of dozens of issue categories tracked by AdImpact, the analysis found that Trump was the fourth most frequently mentioned issue by Democrats in the final stretch of the House and Senate races. Only health care, taxes and accusations that opponents are beholden to special interests have been overcome.
For Republicans in the same races, Trump-themed ads ranked 33rd, by comparison. The main topics covered in their advertisements were taxes and crime.
Idaho Republican Sen. Jim Risch told viewers that he “fought alongside President Trump to pass the largest tax cuts for working families in American history.”
In total, in the final stretch of the race since September 1, Democrats have spent or plan to spend $1.8 billion on ads in all federal, state and local elections. Republicans have spent or set aside $2.2 billion nationally.
Republican strategist Alex Conant said Democrats are counting on Trump to motivate their base to vote, an approach they have used regularly over the past decade.
“The Democrats want this election to be a referendum on Trump. They want to equate a vote for a Republican candidate with a vote for Trump,” he said.
For Conant’s party, the calculation is different.
“We have a lot of money and we are throwing all kinds of messages at the wall to see what sticks,” he said. “There are no cookie-cutter Republican ads this year. Whereas the Democratic ads are pretty obvious.”
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