House Republicans’ political arm is on track to spend more than $100 million on coordinated campaign ads by Election Day, according to an aide with the group — a surge of cash that has boosted GOP candidates as they try to hold their slim congressional majority.
The spending from the National Republican Congressional Committee — aided by a roughly $30 million contribution from the Republican National Committee — represents a large portion of the GOP’s overall advertising effort in House races this year. The cash flood has helped give Republicans a crucial spending edge over Democrats in many battleground districts.
“The NRCC built an advertising operation in cooperation with our partners to be the tip of the spear, providing early air support and putting a historic war chest to work across the battlefield in coordinated spending behind our candidates,” said Jack Pandol, the NRCC’s deputy executive director.
The spending went to 60 House districts, an NRCC official said.
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The NRCC’s coordinated spending surge is the culmination of the committee’s effort to change how campaigns are funded and how that money can be spent, including for digital and TV ads.
In prior elections, groups like the NRCC faced significant limitations on how much cash they could legally spend in coordination with their candidates.
But a ruling from the Supreme Court this summer, in which the NRCC was a plaintiff, abolished coordination limits, allowing committees to spend freely on campaign ads from their own war chests.
That change was widely seen as a boon to Republican campaigns, in part because the RNC has an enormous cash-on-hand advantage compared to the Democratic National Committee.
“The NRCC proudly helped lead the legal effort in bringing the historic case that struck down unconstitutional limits on political parties supporting their own candidates,” said Ryan Dollar, NRCC’s legal counsel. “We were prepared to put that victory to work immediately, turning years of legal work into an operation that could deliver for our candidates when it mattered most.”
It remains to be seen whether the GOP’s financial edge will be enough to overcome a hostile political environment across the country. Most forecasters project that Democrats will win a House majority on Tuesday and, in recent weeks, Republicans have been forced to defend even some deep red seats.
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