Pro-GOP group targets House Democrats with billboards near shuttered schools
EXCLUSIVE – An exterior group that backs Republican causes goes up in 12 congressional districts managed by House Democrats with adverts spotlighting the flamable challenge of school reopenings amid the coronavirus pandemic.
The American Action Network (AAN) on Thursday is unveiling a brand new challenge advocacy marketing campaign that urges congressional lawmakers to help the protected reopening of the nation’s schools. The adverts, shared first with Fox News, will likely be seen in House districts with Democrats who’re doubtlessly susceptible in subsequent yr’s midterm elections and who voted in latest weeks towards the Reopen Schools Act.
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The invoice, sponsored by Republican Rep. Ashley Hinson of Iowa, would have given full federal funding to schools that bodily reopen through the pandemic and penalized districts that stay closed.
Congressional Republicans in latest weeks have highlighted the tug of warfare over the reopening of schools, which has put President Biden’s administration and congressional Democrats in a tough spot between the competing pursuits of some lecturers unions in main cities, which oppose returning to school rooms with out extra protections, and oldsters who desperately need to see their youngsters again in schools. Republicans are more and more blaming Biden, congressional Democrats and their college union allies for continued college closures.
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“Kids are falling behind, yet liberals in Congress seem not to care,” AAN president Dan Conston argued in a press release.
Pointing to scientific research – together with work by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) that point out the chance of COVID transmission in schools stays low when mask-wearing and social distancing measures are in place – Conston charged that “even though the science shows it’s safe for children to return to school, teachers unions continue to keep students locked out of their classrooms. Liberals in Congress — awash in teacher union cash — are picking the unions over America’s kids. Our children have fell behind enough, it’s time Congress supported safely reopening schools now.”
Many lecturers unions are demanding extra coronavirus testing, vaccinations and different security measures earlier than returning to in-person instruction. The CDC is predicted to launch new and extra detailed steering on college reopenings later this week. The president has vowed to observe the science as he gently pushes schools to reopen. But Biden and congressional Democrats additionally take pleasure in robust help from lecturers and their union management.
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The new AAN marketing campaign consists of billboards near shuttered schools within the districts of Democratic Reps. Elaine Luria (VA-02), Susan Wild (PA-07) and Andy Kim (NJ-03). Those three House Democrats and 9 others can even see digital adverts of their districts and what the AAN calls “grassroots phone calls to their district offices.”
A mockup by the pro-Republican group American Action Network of the billboard that will likely be seen beginning Thursday, Feb. 11, 2021, near a closed college within the district of Democratic Rep. Susan Wild of Pennsylvania.
(Source: American Action Network)
The different 9 House Democrats are Josh Harder of California, Cheri Bustos of Illinois, Haley Stevens of Michigan, Chris Pappas of New Hampshire, Tom Malinowski of New Jersey, Matt Cartwright of Pennsylvania, Education and Labor Committee chair Bobby Scott of Virginia, Abigail Spanberger of Virginia, and Ron Kind of Wisconsin.
The AAN, a nonprofit advocacy group based in 2010 alongside with its sister group, the Congressional Leadership Fund (CLF), raised over $215 million within the 2020 election cycle. The CLF was the most important spending amongst exterior teams backing House Republicans, and AAN spent hundreds of thousands advocating for conservative insurance policies on Capitol Hill.
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The GOP managed the House majority for eight years earlier than shedding management of the chamber within the 2018 midterms. But Republicans defied expectations and took an enormous chunk out of the Democrats’ majority in final November’s elections and solely must flip 5 seats in 2022 to regain management of the House. In fashionable instances, the celebration that controls the White House historically loses roughly 25 House seats in midterm elections.
