Democratic group launches $25 million ad blitz targeting Trump on abortion

A Democratic super PAC is launching a $25 million advertising blitz in three swing states, featuring voter testimonials about former President Donald Trump’s role in curbing abortion access.

The ads from American Bridge 21st Century mark the first wave of a larger, planned $140 million campaign by the group to persuade swing voters in Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin to reject Trump’s bid to return to the White House. President Joe Biden flipped all three states in 2020.

The ads, which the group says will target women voters living in rural and exurban areas of the three states, represent the latest effort by Democrats to use emotional, straight-to-the-camera stories to sway election outcomes since the US Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022.

American Bridge co-founder Bradley Beychok said the group has recruited hundreds of voters “willing to share their stories about why another Trump White House would be so devastating for them.”

Trump’s nomination of three conservatives to the high court paved the way for the Dobbs decision overturning the federal right to abortion, which has emerged as one of the most contentious issues in politics. Biden’s campaign has sought to make it the defining issue of the 2024 election.

While Trump has said he was “proudly the person responsible” for the court’s action, the former president has said decisions on limits to abortion should be left up to the states. He also has declined to say how he would vote on an abortion access measure on the ballot this fall in Florida, where he resides.

In some cases, the American Bridge ads juxtapose Trump’s words with those voters. In one, a Wisconsin woman named Anna – described as an OB-GYN and mother of two – tearfully describes having to terminate a wanted pregnancy because the baby she was carrying would not survive.

“That’s not a decision for any politician, including Donald Trump,” she says.

In another commercial, Lori – who has worked as a nurse in central Pennsylvania – frets about the impact of Dobbs on her daughter and granddaughter.

“We’re already moving backwards,” she says. “If we reelect Trump, what are women going to lose next?”

American Bridge officials say the ads are aimed at four kinds of voters: moderates, those who swing between Democrats and Republicans, conservatives who dislike the hard-right rhetoric espoused by some Republicans, and a group they call “double doubters,” which they define as voters who aren’t excited about either Trump or Biden.

In all, the group has a $200 million budget for its anti-Trump efforts in the 2024 election, including its previously announced $140 million advertising campaign. Officials say another wave of testimonial-style ads will roll out this summer in these three battlegrounds.

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