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FIRST ON FOX – With the national average cost of unleaded gasoline topping $5 per gallon and heading even higher, a leading conservative advocacy group that backs Republican causes is going up with a summer campaign spotlighting skyrocketing gas prices and soaring inflation.
The new ads by the American Action Network (AAN), shared first with Fox News on Thursday, will run in the districts of nearly a dozen House Democrats.
Some spots will urge lawmakers to stop the continued push by President Biden and the Democratic leaders in Congress to pass a new slimmed-down but still very large government spending plan. Republicans for nearly a year have blamed the worst inflation in decades on the massive coronavirus pandemic spending package passed last year by the Democratic congressional majorities and signed into law by the president. Other ads will urge Congress to expand domestic energy production to address record gas prices.
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AAN says it will spend over $4 million to run the new TV and digital ads.
“She was warned that big government spending could overheat the economy, but Angie Craig didn’t listen,” the narrator in the ad targeting Rep. Angie Craig of Minnesota’s 2nd Congressional District says. “You’re paying more for groceries. You’re paying more for gas. Because Angie Craig didn’t listen.”
The spot ends with the narrator urging viewers to “call Congresswoman Craig and tell her to stop supporting Biden’s big spending agenda.”
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In another spot, running in Kansas’ 3rd District against Rep. Sharice Davids, the announcer spotlights surging gas prices and states that the president “attacked American energy production. Halted pipelines. Hamstrung exploration.”
“Tell Congresswoman Sharice Davids to help open American energy production and lower the price of gas,” the announcer says.
The ads will also run in the districts of nine other House Democrats, some of whom face challenging re-elections in November as the Republicans aim to win back the majority in the chamber they lost in the 2018 cycle.
The lawmakers are Reps. Greg Stanton of Arizona’s 9th District, Mike Levin of California’s 49th District, Jahana Hayes of Connecticut’s 5th District, Jared Golden of Maine’s 2nd District, Dan Kildee of Michigan’s 5th District, Kim Schrier of Washington state’s 8th District, Scott Peters of California’s 52nd District, Richard Neal of Massachusetts’ 1st District, and Frank Pallone of New Jersey’s 6th District.
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Two-thirds of those questioned in a new Fox News national poll released on Wednesday said that gas prices were a “major problem” for their family, with more than half adding that grocery prices were also a “major problem.”
AAN is the nonprofit sister organization to the Congressional Leadership Fund (CLF), which is aligned with House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., and is the top super PAC backing House Republicans.
The release of the new ads come a day after the National Republican Congressional Committee took aim at a dozen House Democrats it considers “vulnerable” with new digital ads spotlighting the relentless rise in prices at the pump.
Gas prices over $6 per gallon at a Chevron station on May 20, 2022, in San Rafael, California. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
While the NRCC continues to blame Democrats for surging gas prices, the rival Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee keeps pointing fingers back at House Republicans.
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“The Democratic Party is the only party in Washington fighting to solve problems and bring meaningful change to people’s lives. Democrats’ priority is lowering costs for working families, while Republicans’ priority is to win power by playing politics and siding with wealthy corporations,” DCCC spokesperson Chris Taylor said last month.
