Right-wing dark money group running misleading attack ads targeting Ohio Democrats
The midterm election is still more than a year away, but that hasn’t stopped one right-wing group from running misleading ads in Ohio attacking vulnerable Democrats. In Akron and Toledo, ads claim U.S. Reps. Emilia Sykes and Marcy Kaptur voted no “when the time came to protect and fund Medicare.”
“I have seen it,” University of Akron political scientist David Cohen said. His impression?
“Absurd,” he said, “in that Democrats have owned the health care issue for decades, and absurd in the context of the Big, Beautiful Bill.”
The sweeping policy measure, passed without a single Democratic vote this month, could lead to big increases in uninsured Americans and significant cuts to Medicare. Television stations in Toledo have already run fact-checks dismissing the ads as untrue.
“Interesting politics,” Cohen said. “They’re just trying to soften up the ground in a bunch of swing districts in the country in an effort — a pretty desperate effort — for the Republicans to try in any way to maintain control of the House of Representatives.”
What are the claims?
Democrats voted against a continuing resolution in March that would avert a government shutdown through the end of September.
At the time, Democratic negotiators were pushing for a short-term funding bill to give them time to reach a deal. Republicans turned them down.
Medicare is a mandatory program, so benefit checks go out even in a government shutdown.
The March continuing resolution extended funding for important, related programs like community health centers and rural hospitals, but again, only through the end of September. That’s the entire argument proposing that Sykes, Kaptur, and 28 other Democrats failed to support Medicare.
In the meantime, Republicans’ passage of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act could cut the program by almost half a trillion dollars by 2034, according to Congressional Budget Office projections. Existing law puts a brake, known as sequestration, on mandatory spending if the deficit gets too big.
The ad goes on to criticize Democratic lawmakers because they “rubber stamped the Biden pill penalty.”
That critique relates to a law allowing Medicare to negotiate drug prices. Relatively simple drugs (typically a pill) get seven years on the market before they’re eligible for negotiated pricing; more complex, expensive to produce drugs (delivered with an IV or infusion) get 11 years.
Pharmaceutical companies making pills argue the difference in timelines “unfairly discriminates” against pill makers and will push companies to focus on developing more costly drugs. PhRMA’s solution is to give all drugs 11 years on the market before negotiated pricing.
After the first round of negotiations, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services reported that ‘penalty’ could’ve saved the program $6 billion had those prices been in place the year prior.
Who’s behind it?
American Action Network has put $7 million into the ad campaign targeting a total of 30 Democrats around the country. The group is connected with the Congressional Leadership Fund, a super-PAC supporting House Republicans with the blessing of Speaker Mike Johnson.
In a press release, Chris Winkelman, president of both organizations, said “Conservatives in Congress are working hard to protect seniors and preserve health care benefits for all Americans.”
“The proposals liberal members of Congress support not only increase health care costs but do nothing to root out waste fraud and abuse in government,” he claimed.
As a 501(c)(4) ‘social welfare’ organization, American Action Network is not required to disclose its donors. But the good government organization Issue One noted last November that PhRMA gave AAN $3.5 million in 2023. Since 2010, PhRMA has given $38 million to the group.
Although these dark money groups can engage in political activity, it can’t be their primary purpose and they can’t explicitly advocate for or against a candidate. Although the ads criticize lawmakers’ votes, for instance, they encourage viewers to call the lawmaker rather than vote against them.
Cohen thinks the ad is meant to confuse voters and muddy the waters, but he’s not exactly surprised.
“I think right now we’re in the stage of a campaign where you throw as much crap against the wall and see what sticks,” he said.
Cohen added many of the health care cuts in the Big Beautiful Bill won’t really bite until after the midterm elections. That was a “smart, strategic move,” he said, ahead of a race that’s usually hard on the president’s party.
Putting the issue front and center as the election approaches though? Not so much.
“If Republicans really want to talk about Medicare and Medicaid,” he said, “I think that’s a huge advantage in the ’26 mid-terms for Democrats.”
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