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An outside group is launching a new TV ad targeting House Speaker Mike Johnson in his own district on the issue of protecting Social Security and Medicare.
Unrig Our Economy, a populist economic group, is launching the 30-second spot as part of a $70,000 buy in the Shreveport, La., media market, according to an announcement shared first with NBC News.
"Tell Speaker Mike Johnson: Protect us, not billionaires. Don’t cut our Social Security and Medicare," a narrator says in the ad.
The spot points to Johnson's past positions on entitlement programs, citing a Newsweek report that detailed his support for budget resolutions as Republican Study Committee chairman that proposed cuts to those programs. The budget resolutions also proposed raising the retirement age to be eligible for those benefits.
"Here in Louisiana, we work hard and take care of each other. But Speaker Mike Johnson led efforts to cut our Social Security and Medicare benefits," a narrator says in the ad, later warning that Republicans are "threatening to cut our hard-earned benefits again."
The ad is the first to directly target Johnson since he became speaker last month, per the announcement from Unrig Our Economy. The group targeted a handful of vulnerable GOP House lawmakers last year.