EXCLUSIVE — Republicans are pouring hundreds of millions of dollars to defend their control of the majority of state legislative chambers across the country, unveiling a “Left’s Most Wanted” ad campaign to target Democratic state lawmakers on their voting records in battleground states.
The Republican State Legislative Committee, the largest organization of GOP state leaders in the country, will launch the six-figure campaign Wednesday, using the final weeks of the 2024 election cycle to “make an example” of state Democrats. The campaign specifically targets eight Democrats in Arizona, New Hampshire, and Wisconsin.
“Our top priority these next few weeks is to defend our GOP majorities in battleground states and the best way to play defense is to go directly on offense,” RSLC President Dee Duncan said in a statement. “The RSLC’s ‘Left’s Most Wanted’ ad campaign will … [hold] them accountable for their failures to keep their communities safe and protect parents’ rights. We will continue to invest the necessary resources needed through Election Day to defend our majorities across the country to hold the line against extremist Democrats running up-and-down the ballot on November 5th.”
The digital ad campaign hits the Democratic lawmakers on matters such as immigration, crime, and education, which are shaping up to be some of the top voter issues of the 2024 cycle.
In 2023, the RSLC launched a list of target seats, including those in GOP-held chambers at risk of being flipped by Democrats. That list includes majorities to defend, majorities to flip out of Democratic control, and even supermajorities that are possible to obtain.
In the three battleground states included in the “Left’s Most Wanted” campaign, RSLC leaders say they have a strong slate of candidates to win or even flip seats out of Democratic control. The group pointed to certain districts that have been razor-thin in recent presidential elections and decided by fewer than 5 percentage points.
Republicans control 57 state legislative chambers across the country, giving them a slight advantage over Democrats, who have majorities in 49 chambers. Thanks to tight margins in a handful of states, Democrats only need to flip 33 seats across five chambers to win control of the majority of state legislatures nationwide, an honor Republicans have held since 2010.
The RSLC has focused largely on defending GOP majorities in both houses of the three states.
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The ad campaign follows historic investments from the RSLC earlier this year to maintain control of the legislative chambers it holds and obtain supermajorities, meaning the party holds a veto-proof majority against the governor or opposing party, in the Iowa House and South Carolina Senate. Republicans already hold supermajorities in the Iowa Senate and in both chambers in Florida, Iowa, North Carolina, and Ohio.
The RSLC push comes as Democratic groups have similarly announced massive investments in flipping state legislative seats to target Republican supermajorities. The Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee announced a $10 million investment earlier this year, targeting similar races in presidential battleground states to defend their majorities.
