Progressive group launches six-figure ad campaign to highlight Biden's accomplishments

American Bridge 21st Century announced a six-figure ad campaign on Friday aimed at highlighting President Joe Biden’s legislative achievements and the positive impact they have had on communities in four swing states.

The progressive political action committee’s four spots note economic growth in Flint, Michigan; Greensboro, North Carolina; Erie, Pennsylvania; and Green Bay, Wisconsin, respectively, and come on the second anniversary of Congress passing Biden’s American Rescue Plan, which invested $1.9 trillion in COVID-19 relief, school reopenings, and direct aid to state and local governments.

“Things are picking up” around each of the communities, a narrator tells viewers in the 60-second ads. “You see it on the street, in small businesses gearing back up and working families doing a little better. And one leader never forgot what makes places like this work: Joe Biden. He’s a president building us back from the bottom up.”

The ads then tout Biden’s work in enacting the bipartisan CHIPS and Science Act “to build things here in America again” and the Inflation Reduction Act to “lower prescription drug costs and cap insulin at $35” for Medicare beneficiaries, and his commitment to “always protect Social Security and Medicare.”

Over images of former President Donald Trump, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, the narrator contrasts Biden with “extremists with a different agenda,” accusing “MAGA Republicans” of opposing Biden’s “common sense investments.”

Citing data from the Department of Health and Human Services, the ads note that the insulin caps Republicans opposed will lower costs for more than “66,000 Michiganders,” “56,000 North Carolinians,” “80,000 Pennsylvanians,” and “31,000 Wisconsinites.”

Based on a 2021 analysis of Biden’s original $1.5 trillion infrastructure proposal by economists at the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce, the ads also note that Trump, DeSantis, and McCarthy opposed the efforts that the ads say are creating more than 456,000 new jobs in Michigan; 479,000 in North Carolina; 590,000 in Pennsylvania; and 266,000 in Wisconsin.

Biden ultimately signed a bipartisan $1.2 trillion infrastructure compromise package that included $550 billion in new funding for transportation, water systems, electrical grid, and broadband infrastructure.

The ads conclude by encouraging viewers to “stand beside him to finish the job.”

“While President Biden looks to cut costs for average American families and continue to grow our economy, Republicans continue to oppose extremely popular issues like capping insulin costs and protecting Social Security and Medicare,” American Bridge 21st Century President Pat Dennis said in a press release.

“With these ads, American Bridge is ensuring that voters see Republicans for what they are — selfish, power-hungry politicians who focus on appeasing special interests to keep their re-election funds flowing,” Dennis added. “The contrast between the president’s leadership and the progress we have made as a country and the GOP’s constant failures could not be clearer.”

The group’s buy also includes a 30-second national version and minute-long radio spots.

Since Biden’s inauguration in January 2021, the United States economy has added more than 12 million jobs, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Published with permission of the American Independent Foundation in collaboration with American Bridge 21st Century.