Progressive veterans PAC unleashes ads urging California lawmakers to approve Ukraine aid
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A handful of Republican lawmakers intent on unwinding from the fracas on Capitol Hill may want to think twice before flipping on the TV during their two-week recess at home.
The progressive political action committee Vote Vets on Tuesday launched a blitz of targeted spots calling out by name seven GOP lawmakers, including Central Valley Reps. John Duarte and David Valadao, and urging them to support the embattled $60 billion aid package for Ukraine.
Vote Vets said it spent $530,000 on the ad campaign that features six nearly identical videos, differing only in addressing separate lawmakers. Duarte and Valadao, representatives of bordering districts threaded by Interstate 5 from Modesto to Bakersfield, are combined into one ad.
“Valadao and Duarte are holding Ukraine aid hostage, following orders from Donald Trump,” the narrator says over pictures of the two congressmen and somber battlefield images. “If Ukraine falls, the line between freedom and fascism moves West, and it could be American boots on the ground next,” the ad continues, ending with a plea to Duarte and Valadao to “give Ukraine what it they need to win before it’s too late,” and sign the funding bill HR 1016.
Along with the two Californians, other targeted lawmakers are Brandon Williams, R-N.Y., Lori Chavez-DeRemer, R-Ore., Jen Kiggans R-Va., Juan Ciscomani, R-Ariz. and Marc Molinaro R-N.Y. All are in competitive House races this November, with five including Duarte and Valadao in “toss-up” races that the Cook Political Report says could go to either party.
It is the latest iteration of the group’s ads tailored to Republicans in a bid to push the fractured party to move forward on the bill. The resolution passed in the Senate in February but so far has been held from a House vote by Speaker Mike Johnson as he juggles an unruly caucus increasingly dominated by right-wing isolationist figures opposed to more aid.
Legislators left the Capitol last week for their home districts as the issue climbed in dramatics when conservative firebrand Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene threatened to oust Johnson in a motion to vacate, a process similar to what delivered him the speakership after California Rep. Kevin McCarthy became the first speaker to be removed from Congress.
Republican presumptive presidential nominee Donald Trump has continuously criticized sending aid to Ukraine. President Joe Biden has been urging Congress to pass an emergency national security bill for months, and though it was approved by the Senate with bipartisan support, it has failed to gain traction in the Republican-controlled House.
According to the latest study from Germany’s Kiel Institute, U.S. aid commitments and deliveries to Ukraine, the nation giving the most second to the EU, have essentially come to a halt as the impasse in Congress stretches onward.
Aid from Europe, however, continues to grow, both in terms of commitments and aid allocations or earmarks, with the specific purpose and to be sent to Ukraine in the near term, the report said. U.S. aid peaked at $74 billion after the 2022 appropriations bill passed.
Military aid averaged $3.05 billion per month in the first half of 2023, the institute says, but dropped below $1 billion per month August to December 2023.
Kathryn Palmer is the California 2024 Elections Fellow for USA TODAY. Reach her at kapalmer@gannett.com and follow her on X @KathrynPlmr.
This article originally appeared on Palm Springs Desert Sun: Veterans PAC targets California Republicans over Ukraine aid
