Working Class Weekly: Winning the Battleground in Pennsylvania
Last week, we shared how our focus groups and conversations with working class voters in North Carolina shaped our paid media strategy in the state. This week, American Bridge is continuing that strategy with new ads launching in Pennsylvania’s 8th Congressional District.
Pennsylvania is among the latest investments in our multi-million dollar midterm ad campaign, which is targeting swing working class voters in nearly 20 key races. We’re targeting these voters to expand the battleground by putting traditionally safe Republican seats — including districts rated R+3 or higher — in play this November. Every ad in this campaign builds on the extensive voter research conducted through this Working Class Project, designed to win back working class voters in the battleground and beyond.
Pennsylvania’s 8th district in Northeastern Pennsylvania (also known as NEPA) is one of the most competitive races in the country this cycle. Republican incumbent Rob Bresnahan voted for the healthcare cuts that our focus group participants consistently show are a major negative. He also campaigned on a promise to ban congressional stock trading — only to become one of the most prolific traders in Congress. This combination of healthcare cuts, rising costs and corruption are everything voters hate about Congress right now.
PAIRING COSTS AND CORRUPTION
Our focus groups continue to show that corruption is a powerful negative with these voters — especially when it’s tied directly to their own cost of living concerns. Our research points to specific Republican vulnerabilities that give Democrats a real opening to make corruption messaging stick, namely, stock trading and healthcare.
Pennsylvania’s Rob Bresnahan has made headlines for becoming one of the most prolific stock traders in Congress, despite promising during his first campaign to support a ban on congressional stock trading. What makes this more tangible for voters is how closely his trading activity tracks with the cost pressures hurting working families. He sold off stock in Medicaid providers, then voted to gut Medicaid. He bought defense stock prior to the US launching strikes on Iran, and has backed the war that is driving up costs at home.
Our ad presses Bresnahan’s pattern of self-enrichment and highlights how out of touch he is with the people he represents — flying in a personal luxury helicopter and growing his stock portfolio while working families fall further behind. We’re drawing a direct line between his self-dealing and the financial anxieties working class Pennsylvanians are grappling with every day.
REAL WORKING CLASS VOICES
Kenneth is from Dunmore, Pennsylvania. He grew up in a working class family and is currently living paycheck to paycheck. He’s sick of his congressman making millions while working families in his community struggle to afford the basics.
Kenneth’s story echoes the same concerns we’ve heard again and again throughout our focus groups. He’s exactly the type of voter Democrats need to reach if they’re going to win back the working class. Democrats have a real opportunity to pick up Pennsylvania’s 8th district seat. That’s why we’re putting the insights from this Working Class Project to work — messaging on the issues voters care about more, pressing the negatives we know land, and turning the higher costs working class families are facing into vulnerabilities Republicans can’t outrun.
NEXT WEEK: We’re looking at American Bridge’s campaign to win in Alaska.
begin w/ kicking out the cognitively impaired lurch feyerman