Democrats launch attack ads against vulnerable Republicans over election of Speaker Johnson

EXCLUSIVE — House Democrats are targeting vulnerable Republicans over their decision to elect Mike Johnson (R-LA) as their newest speaker, accusing GOP lawmakers of appointing a “MAGA Republican extremist” to the highest position in the lower chamber for political gain.

The Congressional Integrity Project launched a new national ad campaign on Wednesday targeting 18 vulnerable Republicans representing districts President Joe Biden won in 2020. The ads specifically target the lawmakers over their support of Johnson, who has been a staunch supporter of impeachment investigations into the president, as well as his role in seeking to overturn the results of the 2020 election.

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“MAGA Mike Johnson is as extreme as they come but that didn’t stop every single Republican Member of Congress, including those from districts won by President Biden, from voting for him,” CIP Executive Director Kyle Herrig said in a statement. “They knew he was an extremist and a Trump loyalist who was a top architect in the plot to illegally overthrow the election and that he supports an evidence free impeachment inquiry into President Biden.”

The ads are set to run in eight different states and target some of the most competitive districts of the 2024 cycle, including the seats held by Reps. Don Bacon (R-NE), Lori Chavez-DeRemer (R-OR), Juan Ciscomani (R-AZ), Anthony D’Esposito (R-NY), John Duarte (R-CA), Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA), Mike Garcia (R-CA), Tom Kean Jr. (R-NJ), Jen Kiggans (R-VA), Young Kim (R-CA), Nick LaLota (R-NY), Mike Lawler (R-NY), Marc Molinaro (R-NY), George Santos (R-NY), David Schweikert (R-AZ), Michelle Steel (R-CA), David Valadao (R-CA), and Brandon Williams (R-NY).

The ads paint Johnson as a “Trump loyalist” who would use his position as the No. 1 House lawmaker to push for an “evidence-free impeachment inquiry,” which the CIP argues is a blatant political move intended to “hurt President Biden.”

“After weeks of chaos, Republicans just elected MAGA Mike Johnson as the new Speaker of the House. Johnson is as extreme as they come,” the voice-over in the 30-second ad says. “This is who Rep. XXX voted for. Tell him to stop putting MAGA over the American people.”

The ad campaign comes just days after Johnson indicated House Republicans’ work on the impeachment investigation is far from over, telling Fox News’s Maria Bartiromo on Sunday that lawmakers are “trying to move forward on some of this very aggressively.”

“I think the American people are owed these answers,” Johnson said. “And I think our suspicions about all this, the evidence that we’ve gathered so far is affirming what many of us feared may be the worst.”

“We already have a lot of this evidence,” he added. “The dots are being connected, and we’ll see where it leads.”

However, it’s not entirely clear how much of this evidence the public will be able to see in the coming weeks after Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-KY), who has been leading the impeachment inquiry, told reporters last week he wasn’t eager to hold more hearings.

“I don’t know that I want to hold any more hearings, to be honest with you,” he said.

Republicans touted the impeachment inquiry as one of their top pledges once they took control of the lower chamber earlier this year, hoping to use its momentum to expand their majority in 2024.

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All 435 seats are up for grabs in 2024 as Republicans seek to hold their slim majority in the lower chamber. Of these, 42 are considered competitive, with most of those held by Democrats, giving the GOP a slight advantage as it prepares for the next election cycle.

However, of the 42 competitive seats, 18 are held by Republicans in districts that voted for Biden in 2020, compared to just five Democrats who must defend their seats in districts carried by former President Donald Trump. That means there are just enough vulnerable GOP-held seats to keep things competitive heading into the next election cycle.