Senate GOP re-election arm goes up with new ads in Arizona and Wisconsin midterm battlegrounds

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FIRST ON FOX: The Senate Republicans re-election arm is launching new ads Friday in the crucial general swing states of Arizona and Wisconsin, which are home to key Senate races that may determine if the GOP wins back the majority in the chamber.

The launch of the National Republican Senatorial Committee’s (NRSCs) ads, shared first with Fox News on Friday, comes a couple of weeks after the committee made political headlines by canceling reservations for TV commercial airtime in both states, and Pennsylvania, another crucial battleground in November’s midterms.

The spot in Arizona takes aim at former astronaut and Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly, who narrowly won the seat in a 2020 special election and whom the GOP views as one of the most vulnerable Democratic Senate incumbents on the ballot this year. Kelly is criticized in the commercial for his stances on border security and immigration - a top concern to voters in the state sits along the U.S.-Mexico border – as well as the combustible issue of legalized abortion.

"Kelly’s voted to keep our borders open to illegal criminals and to let them stay here illegally. Kelly voted to fund teaching our children woke racism and extremism. He even supports extreme last-minute abortions, right before baby’s birth," the narrator in the NRSC spot charges. "This is Mark Kelly’s radical, extreme, America. But you don’t have to live in it."

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Kelly enjoys a large fundraising advantage over Republican challenger Blake Masters, as well as a single digital advantage in the most recent public opinion polls. Kelly topped Masters by eight points among registered voters in Arizona in the latest Fox News poll in the state. 

Masters has been targeting Kelly repeatedly in recent weeks over border security and immigration, spotlighting the issue over others that the GOP emphasizes, such as inflation and crime, and the new NRSC ad continues that line of attack. 

NRSC ANNOUNCES NEW SPENDING IN ARIZONA, WISCONSIN, BATTLEGROUNDS

However, Kelly and his campaign spotlight that the senator’s repeatedly pressed President Biden’s administration for more resources to beef up border security and has publicly criticized Biden for not releasing a border plan. He also pilloried the president over his move to end a Trump-era pandemic restriction known as Title 42, which allowed officials to rapidly expel asylum seekers that crossed U.S.-Mexico border.

Sen. Mark Kelly hears from a U.S. Customs Border Patrol officer in Douglas, Arizona. (Sen. Mark Kelly office )

The mention of abortion in the spot is an attempt by Republicans to turn the tables on an issue that’s boosted Democrats following the late June opinion by the Supreme Court’s conservative majority to upend the landmark Roe v. Wade ruling and send the battle over legalized abortion back to the states.

The NRSC tells Fox News it will spend at least $560,000 to run their ad, as well as a Spanish language version, on TV and online in Arizona through Sept. 8.

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The Senate GOP re-election arm’s new spot in Wisconsin targets Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes, the Democratic nominee. Barnes is challenging Sen. Ron Johnson, whom the Democrats view as the most vulnerable Republican incumbent seeking another term this year.

"What happens when criminals are released because bail is set dangerously low?," asks the narrator in the NRSC commercial.

The ad then shows news clips of the tragedy last year in Waukesha, Wisconsin, when a man in an SUV plowed through the city’s Christmas parade, resulting in six killed and dozens injured. Darrell Brooks, the driver of the vehicle, had been released on $1,000 bail five days before incident, which raised questions about bail in Wisconsin.

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"Mandela Barnes wants to end cash bail, completely. He wrote the bill. Barnes still wants to end cash bail. Today. Mandela Barnes. Not just a Democrat. A dangerous Democrat," the narrator argues.

Barnes favors eliminating cash bail nationwide. "It's about keeping people safe," he’s said, emphasizing that "under my plan, dangerous criminals don't get to buy their way out of jail."

Wisconsin Lieutenant Governor Mandela Barnes, the Democratic nominee for the U.S. Senate, speaks during a campaign event at The Wicked Hop on Aug. 07, 2022 in Milwaukee. (Scott Olson/Getty Images)

The Democratic challenger holds a single digit advantage over Johnson in the most recent public opinion surveys, including a four-point lead in the latest Fox News poll.

The NRSC tells Fox News that the new spot in Wisconsin is part of an existing ad buy in the state.

After reports published last month spotlighting the NRSC’s shifting of resources made headlines, the committee’s communications director Chris Hartline stressed that "nothing has changed about our commitment to winning in all of our target states."

Hartline added that the committee had "been spending earlier than ever before to help our candidates get their message out and define the Democrats for their radical agenda. We’ve been creative in how we’re spending our money and will continue to make sure that every dollar spent by the N.R.S.C. is done in the most efficient and effective way possible."

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A few days later, as Fox News first reported, the NRSC announced $2.2 million in new spending in Arizona and Wisconsin.

The Senate is currently split 50/50 between the two major parties, but the Democrats control the chamber’s majority thanks to the tie breaking vote of Vice President Kamala Harris, through her constitutional role as president of the Senate. That means the GOP needs of net gain of just one seat in November to win back the majority they lost when they were swept in the twin Senate runoff elections in Georgia on Jan. 5, 2021.