EXCLUSIVE — Republicans are unleashing their final efforts to defeat Democrats in key races just a week before Election Day as the party looks to defend its control of the majority of state legislative chambers across the country.
The Republican State Leadership Committee, the largest organization of GOP state leaders in the country, will release its third and final round of its “Left’s Most Wanted” ad campaign, which targets Democratic state lawmakers on their voting records in battleground states. The six-figure investment targets eight state Democrats in Arizona, New Hampshire, Minnesota, and Wisconsin for their voting records on energy, education, and the economy.
For example, the ads target some lawmakers for being “textbook politicians” while hitting others for being “shockingly extreme.”
The latest ad campaign builds on the group’s earlier efforts to target the same lawmakers on their voting records related to immigration and crime, two of the top voter issues of the 2024 cycle.
The RSLC released a list of target seats last year, highlighting GOP-held chambers at risk of being flipped by Democrats. That list also includes majorities to defend, majorities to flip out of Democratic control, and even supermajorities that are possible to obtain.
The “Left’s Most Wanted” campaign originally included three battleground states, with the group adding Minnesota to the list for the final round.
Republicans control 57 state legislative chambers across the country, giving them a slight advantage over Democrats, who have majorities in 49 chambers. Thanks to tight margins in a handful of states, Democrats only need to flip 33 seats across five chambers to win control of the majority of state legislatures nationwide, an honor Republicans have held since 2010.
The RSLC has focused largely on defending GOP majorities in both houses of the four states.
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The ad campaign follows historic investments from the RSLC earlier this year to maintain control of the legislative chambers the GOP holds and obtain supermajorities, meaning the party holds a veto-proof majority against the governor or opposing party, in the Iowa House and South Carolina Senate. Republicans already hold supermajorities in the Iowa Senate and in both chambers in Florida, Iowa, North Carolina, and Ohio.
The RSLC push comes as Democratic groups have similarly announced massive investments in flipping state legislative seats to target Republican supermajorities. The Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee announced a $10 million investment earlier this year, targeting similar races in presidential battleground states to defend their majorities.