Group linked to House GOP launches $500,000 ad buy targeting Rep. Susie Lee on impeachment probe
A conservative group launched a half-million dollar ad buy Monday targeting Democratic Rep. Susie Lee on the issue of the Democratic-led impeachment investigation, marking the latest move in an ongoing campaign by Republicans to pressure the freshman Democrat ahead of the 2020 election.
The group producing the ads, the American Action Network, is funded almost entirely via the Congressional Leadership Fund, a Republican super PAC with ties to GOP House leaders.
The 30-second spot casts the impeachment hearings as a “politically motivated charade” and accuses Lee of siding with “partisan impeachment” over legislating issues such as border security or approving the Trump Administration’s proposed North American trade deal — a common attack from the GOP as the party attempts to undermine the Democratic rank-and-file in the House.
The ad also invokes imagery of Democratic congressional leaders, Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Sen. Chuck Schumer, as well as a split-screen image of Lee alongside New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. The spot ends by presenting viewers with Lee’s congressional phone number and the words “let the voters decide elections,” referencing the frequent Republican characterization that the impeachment process represents an attempt to undo the 2016 election.
Last month, not long after Lee announced her support of an official House inquiry into a possible quid pro quo between the Trump Administration and Ukraine, Republicans rallied outside her Las Vegas office with chants of “four more years.”
But amid the early outside spending in Nevada’s competitive congressional districts, not all ads have taken to the attack. One group, Protect Our Care, launched an ad campaign Monday defending a number of Democrats — including Lee — on the issue of prescription drug prices.
Those ads come in addition to a separate campaign from the group Patients for Affordable Drugs Now, which launched a digital campaign last month boosting Democratic Rep. Steven Horsford.
Lee represents Nevada’s highly competitive District 3, which has swung back and forth between the major parties over the last 15 years. Still, Lee won the seat easily amid 2018’s blue wave, beating Republican challenger Danny Tarkanian by 9 percentage points and extending Democratic control of the district for the second consecutive election cycle.
Watch the ads below: