Republicans have run ads against Hillary Clinton and Nancy Pelosi 34,000 times in the past month alone
Republicans all over the country are uniting around two common enemies: Hillary Clinton and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.).
Pelosi may only be up for re-election in her northern California congressional district, but that hasn't stopped Republican campaigns and political groups from airing her face thousands of times in political ads over the past 30 days, reports Politico. Perennial GOP boogey-woman Hillary Clinton has joined Pelosi as a co-star in many of these ads, despite not running for any public office.
All told, Pelosi and Clinton have been featured in close to 100 ads that have aired more than 34,000 times in the past month, Politico's analysis found. Republican campaigns and organizations have thrown $28.4 million into the anti-Pelosi and anti-Clinton political messaging in the last 30 days. The ads deride Democratic candidates as "Hillary-supporting" and in favor of Pelosi's radical "San Francisco values," and tie Clinton's "liberal Hollywood elitist" pals to candidates everywhere from Nevada to West Virginia.
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The practice is nothing new — GOP operatives return to the strategy year after year because it's effective. Republicans "are genetically predisposed to detest Nancy Pelosi, and Hillary is not far behind," GOP strategist Ana Navarro said. But others worry that the attack ads may not strike the right tone in a year with a record number of female candidates and an unprecedented gender gap that forecasts a strong shift left among women. Democrats like Sue Dvorsky, former Iowa Democratic Party chair, thinks it will backfire. "We've got 30,000 women running nationwide and they're still running against Nancy Pelosi and Hillary Clinton," she said. "Is that the best they've got?" Read more at Politico.
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Summer Meza has worked at The Week since 2018, serving as a staff writer, a news writer and currently the deputy editor. As a proud news generalist, she edits everything from political punditry and science news to personal finance advice and film reviews. Summer has previously written for Newsweek and the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, covering national politics, transportation and the cannabis industry.
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