Senate Democrats to hit GOP on anniversary of Senate health care vote
Senate Democrats are ramping up a new ad campaign pegged for the one-year anniversary of the Senate's failed vote to repeal Obamacare, a campaign meant to tar the GOP on health care issues.
The new Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee plan combines digital ads with messaging from state parties and campaigns meant to criticize the GOP-controlled Senate's health care plan and argue that more Democrats are needed to protect health care. NBC News received an exclusive early look at the plan ahead of its rollout later this week.
"One year ago Republicans made health care the defining issue of the election by pushing an agenda that spikes premiums, slashes coverage for pre-existing conditions and imposes an age tax on older Americans," David Bergstein, a DSCC spokesman, told NBC News in a statement.
"In roughly 100 days, voters will hold every GOP Senate candidate accountable for their toxic proposals, and we won't stop until every voter knows that Republicans want them to pay more for less care."
One of those efforts will be a new digital ad that rounds up negative media coverage of last year's GOP health care plan that ties into the group's new social push, "#VoteForCare." That ad will run as part of an already announced six-figure buy. And the committee will be promoting a variety of graphics, news stories and personal testimonials on that "#VoteForCare" push as well.
And candidates in Ohio, Florida and other key battleground states have already begun to push messaging on health care to correspond with the campaign.
Friday will be the anniversary of the failed Senate vote to repeal portions of Obamacare, a push that was derailed when Arizona Republican Sen. John McCain stepped onto the Senate floor to give the bill a dramatic thumbs-down.
Since then, other legislation has been proposed in the hopes of repealing and replacing Obamacare but no major overhaul has made it into law.
Health care remains an important issue to voters in recent NBC News/Wall Street Journal polls, but the issue fell from the most important issue to voters in the June poll to the second most important issue in July's poll behind the economy and jobs.
And a recent Pew Foundation poll gave Democrats the edge on health care by a 16 point margin.
The DSCC released a memo this week rounding up polling from this cycle to argue the GOP is vulnerable on the issue.
Still, Republicans have sought to find a footing on the issue by highlighting the push for single-payer health care among progressive Democrats. They argue that plan would have a negative impact on both the economy and freedom to choose the right plan.