The Koch-aligned GOP super PAC Americans for Prosperity Action is putting $6.3 million into battleground Senate ads just a few weeks after warning the Republican Senate majority is “at risk.”
The ads — shared first with POLITICO — are focused heavily on gas prices and affordability, something the group has warned Democrats will take advantage of in November if Republicans don’t present solutions for voters.
The ad buys show that the group is worried about defending Republicans in some very red states. They’re advertising in Montana, which has barely been on the radar for most campaign analysts, as well as Iowa and Ohio, states that President Donald Trump won by double digits in 2024. The group is also running ads in Michigan, New Hampshire and North Carolina.
“Across these six states, voters are telling us the same thing at every door: they want to know who’s going to lower their grocery bill and bring down the cost of gas,” AFP Action Executive Director Nathan Nascimento said in a statement. “The candidates we’re supporting have real plans to do exactly that, and they stand in stark contrast to the progressive policies that have only made things worse. That’s the choice, and we’re going to make sure voters see it clearly.”
The PAC is spending the most in Michigan and Ohio, with $1.7 million in each. The other states have investments ranging from $500,000 to $800,000.
“Things are tough. Gas prices are too high and Ohio families are feeling it. But with Sherrod Brown back in the Senate, high prices would be the new normal,” a narrator says in one of the ads airing in Ohio.
The ad, notably, makes no reference to the war in Iran, which has driven up gas prices nationwide. But the ad shows how Republicans will work to blame the rising costs on Democrats in an effort to keep control in Washington.