Pelosi PAC Buys $102 Million in TV Ad Time in Bid to Keep Democrats’ House Majority

(Bloomberg) -- A super political action committee affiliated with Speaker Nancy Pelosi has reserved almost $102 million in advertising time in an attempt to defend Democrats’ narrow five-seat majority in the House of Representatives.

That amount is twice what the House Majority PAC had reserved two years ago. The reserved time includes $86 million in television ads in 50 markets and another $15.8 million allotted to digital ads, four times what the committee spent online in 2020, according to a statement.

The buys show Democrats reinforcing some of their most vulnerable members after Republicans signaled they intend to expand where they will take on incumbents. Democrats face stiff challenges defending their majority in November’s vote, including historical headwinds and President Joe Biden’s flagging approval rating. 

The Democrats’ largest expenditure is in Las Vegas, were three Democrats are running for re-election: Representatives Dina Titus, Susie Lee and Steven Horsford. Lee is the most vulnerable, winning her race in 2020 by just 12,466 votes.

The National Republican Congressional Committee on Wednesday added two districts -- Titus’s in Nevada and Melanie Stansbury of New Mexico -- to its list of 72 Democratic-held districts it’s trying to flip in the November midterm election.      

Other top markets where the Pelosi PAC is reserving time include Los Angeles ($7 million), Phoenix ($6.2 million) and Denver ($4.2 million). 

The Congressional Leadership Fund, the Republican counterpart to the House Majority PAC, said it hasn’t reserved airtime. But Calvin Moore, a spokesman for the GOP group, noted that it raised nearly twice as much as the Democratic group last year.  

Political groups like to arrange airtime early in order to lock in lower rates in expensive and crowded media markets, but often shift resources around as the campaign unfolds.

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