SALT LAKE CITY — The House Democratic majority’s political action committee is making a big fall TV and radio advertising buy in Utah, where the state’s only Democrat in Congress, Rep. Ben McAdams, is expected to face a tough reelection challenge.
The House Majority PAC announced Monday that $900,000 in TV, cable and radio time is being reserved in Utah in October and November as part of a planned $18 million national buy. The total reserved nationwide by the group aligned with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., is now up to $69 million.
Utah was left out of the PAC’s initial $51 million in reserved time last month. Spokeswoman Caitlin Legacki said the focus then was on states where competitive Senate and presidential contests were expected to drive up ad prices. This round is “in more places where we have competitive seats but it wasn’t as urgent to reserve space,” she said.
“Rep. Ben McAdams has shown time and again that he is a strong representative of his district’s values,” Legacki told the Deseret News. “Whether it’s fighting for access to affordable health care or working across the aisle to reduce the cost of prescription drugs, he has consistently put Utah first.”
The announcement comes about a month after the Republican Congressional Leadership Fund said it planned to spend $825,000 in Utah’s 4th Congressional District race before the November election, part of $43 million in media time reserved nationally.
McAdams was recently named the nation’s 10th most-vulnerable member of Congress this election year by Congressional Quarterly’s Roll Call, down from five last December. Other outlets that rank congressional races, including The Cook Political Report, have rated the race as leaning Democratic.
Utah Republicans will choose their nominee in the June 30 primary election from among four contenders — state Rep. Kim Coleman, R-West Jordan; former NFL player Burgess Owens; former KSL Newsradio host Jay Mcfarland and nonprofit CEO Trent Christensen.
The 4th District, which includes parts of Salt Lake and Utah counties, was represented for two terms by Republican Mia Love. Love, now a CNN contributor, lost the seat to McAdams in 2018 by less than 700 votes in one of the state’s most competitive and expensive races.
McAdams’ campaign manager, Andrew Roberts, said in a statement that the congressman won’t be influenced by the expenditures.
“Utahns are perfectly capable of making up their own minds about this election and don’t need Washington insiders to tell us what to think,” Roberts said. “The bottom line is that no amount of spending from either party is going to get Ben to do anything other than what he has been doing, which is to represent Utah as an independent voice in Congress.”
Utah represents one of the biggest spending commitments by the House Majority PAC in this round of reservations. Of the 28 media markets targeted, more is being set aside only in Albuquerque; Binghamton, New York; Las Vegas; Los Angeles; and New York City.
“House Majority PAC is committed to ensuring we have the resources we need to protect and expand the Democratic majority across the map, from rural areas to America’s largest cities,” House Majority PAC Executive Director Abby Curran Horrell said in a statement.
The group has also sought to book $4.6 million in digital ads aimed at maintaining the Democratic House majority.
For the Republicans vying to take on McAdams in November, money is expected to pour in from both sides of the aisle.
“All roads lead through District 4,” Mcfarland said, noting the seat is seen as a must-win by Republicans to take back control of the House — and by Democrats to keep it. “That tells me we are going to see amounts of money spent from both the parties, from super PACs, from outside organizations, perhaps like we’ve never seen before.”
He said the Republican Party has made it clear it is staying out of the primary race but once voters choose their nominee next month, “then they will dive in full force and provide all of the resources that they have at every level.” That means Democrats likely will do the same, Mcfarland said, because “that’s the way the game is played.”
Coleman referred to McAdams’ vote earlier this year to impeach President Donald Trump on charges related to his pressuring a foreign leader into investigating a political rival, former Vice President Joe Biden, now the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee.
“We’re going to make Ben’s friends spend every penny to explain to Utahns why he voted to impeach their president,” she said in a statement.
Owens said his campaign was “not surprised” the PAC was poised to put money into the race.
He said “we know as well as they do how vulnerable this seat is. Voters have lost all faith in the Democratic Party, and no amount of money will change that. I’m excited to get to know the voters more and share my message. I’m not the everyday candidate, and people are excited about that.”
Christensen cited his experience as a regional finance director for Utah Sen. Mitt Romney’s 2012 presidential campaign.
“The House Majority PAC is funded with large donations from liberal elites. Its only purpose is to keep Nancy Pelosi as speaker, which is why they are spending so much money to help Ben McAdams,” he said. “I raised $90 million to try and help Mitt Romney beat Barack Obama. I can do it again to fire Pelosi and retire Ben McAdams.”