The Republican State Leadership Committee (RSLC), a group focused on electing Republicans to state legislative seats across the country, will begin airing today its first national ads of the cycle, a source familiar with the matter tells National Review.
The six-figure spend paid for by RSLC and its affiliated political action committees will kick off with immigration-related ads in Arizona, Georgia, Nevada, and Wisconsin — four of the group’s target states where Republicans are hoping to pick up and defend state legislative seats in 2024.
“Democrats’ border policies have led to shocking crime, allowed dangerous criminals to roam free on our streets, overwhelmed our hospitals, strained our schools, and pushed our country to the brink — all while Joe Biden stokes the flames,” a narrator reads in one of the spots. “Support state Republicans fighting to restore sanity in America and put a stop to Biden’s border crisis.”
The RSLC’s latest ad campaign comes roughly a month after the group’s president released a polling memo to state legislative candidates urging them to focus their campaign messaging on the economy, crime, and securing the southern border.
But that memo also came with a warning. Don’t make your entire campaign a referendum on President Joe Biden, RSLC president Dee Duncan wrote to GOP state legislative candidate on March 26, citing polling that suggests Democratic state legislative candidates’ ties to the 81-year-old incumbent president won’t be enough to necessarily tip the scales in Republicans’ favor at the ballot box.
“We must learn from the missteps of the 2022 cycle and not solely target Joe Biden in our campaign messaging,” the memo reads. “While it’s tempting, the data suggests this strategy is insufficient on its own. Yes, 48% of voters think they are worse off than they were four years ago, and yes, 58% of voters are more likely to support a Republican in response, but instead of solely focusing your campaign messaging on Biden, concentrate on the policy differences between Republicans and Democrats, highlighting GOP-led initiatives that are directly improving lives.”