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Pro-GOP super PAC AFP Action launches $10 million ad campaign against Democratic senators
A fresh round of attack ads against Democratic U.S. Senate candidates is hitting the airwaves in several competitive races, designed to raise doubts about their support for one of President Biden’s top legislative accomplishments.
AFP Action, one of the largest pro-GOP super PACs supporting congressional candidates, is launching a $10 million television and digital ad campaign against Democratic senators Jon Tester of Montana, Jacky Rosen of Nevada, Sherrod Brown of Ohio, Bob Casey of Pennsylvania, Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin and Rep. Elisa Slotkin of Michigan, who’s running for her state’s open U.S. Senate seat.
Tester and Brown are the most vulnerable Democratic incumbents of the cycle, while the others remain in expensive and closely watched competitive races, despite recent polling showing them pacing ahead of their Republican rivals.
Most of the ads call out the candidates for supporting the Inflation Reduction Act, a $1.2 trillion piece of legislation passed in 2022. AFP Action argues the measure costs the average American family roughly an additional $1,000 every month because the federal spending authorized by the act sparked a rise in prices that has only started to abate in recent months.
The ad targeting Casey, for example, faults him for voting for Mr. Biden’s priorities “98% of the time” and contributing to increased prices caused by inflation. It then urges viewers to support Dave McCormick, his Republican opponent.
Casey has argued the legislation is helping cut health-care related costs, noting earlier this year that “80,200 Pennsylvanians on Medicare Part B and D are paying at most $35 a month for insulin, and 346,000 Pennsylvanians are paying hundreds of dollars less for health care Marketplace premiums.”
The ad targeting Brown calls out his nearly 30 years in elected office and says his vote for the act “drove inflation higher, forcing Buckeye families to pay nearly $1,000 more per month for everyday essentials. Sherrod Brown let us down.” It buoys “first-generation American Bernie Moreno,” his GOP rival.
Brown has defended his vote for the measure, noting it’s saved his constituents money in health-care and energy costs and that the federal investment in Ohio should help spur new jobs.
“These Senators drove our economy over a cliff by voting in lockstep with the Biden-Harris administration’s far-left progressive agenda, and now they want a do-over,” said AFP Action Director Nathan Nascimento.
AFP Action is the political arm of Americans for Prosperity, a conservative organization that famously bucked former president Donald Trump last year and endorsed former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley’s presidential bid. But the group dropped its support for her in February and shifted its focus to congressional races. The organization says it’s engaged in more than 500 federal contests this year.
This new suite of advertising is but a small part of hundreds of millions of dollars set to be spent by various outside super PACs in support of Democratic and Republican congressional candidates, on top of the hundreds of millions already earmarked to be spent on the presidential campaign. Most of the ad time was reserved in the spring at lower rates in anticipation of a cluttered political ad market this fall.
The International Brotherhood of Teamsters says workers at seven Amazon facilities will begin a strike Thursday morning in an effort by the union to pressure the e-commerce giant for a labor agreement during a key shopping period.
The Teamsters say the workers, who authorized walkouts in the past few days, are joining the picket line after Amazon ignored a Dec. 15 deadline the union set for contract negotiations. Amazon says it doesn’t expect any impact on its operations during what the union calls the largest strike against the company in U.S. history.
The Teamsters say they represent nearly 10,000 workers at 10 Amazon facilities, a small portion of the 1.5 million people Amazon employs in its warehouses and corporate offices.
Amazon is ranked No. 2 on the Fortune 500 list of the nation’s largest companies.
At a warehouse in the New York City borough of Staten Island, thousands of workers who voted for the Amazon Labor Union in 2022 and have since affiliated with the Teamsters. At the other facilities, employees – including many delivery drivers – have unionized with them by demonstrating majority support but without holding government-administered elections.
The strikes happening Thursday are taking place at an Amazon warehouse in San Francisco and six delivery stations in southern California, New York City, Atlanta and the Chicago suburb of Skokie, Illinois, according to the union’s announcement. Amazon workers at the other facilities are “prepared to join” them, the union said.
“Amazon is pushing its workers closer to the picket line by failing to show them the respect they have earned,” Teamsters General President Sean M. O’Brien said in a statement.
“If your package is delayed during the holidays, you can blame Amazon’s insatiable greed. We gave Amazon a clear deadline to come to the table and do right by our members. They ignored it,” he said.
The Seattle-based online retailer has been seeking to re-do the election that led to the union victory at the warehouse on Staten Island, which the Teamsters now represent. In the process, the company has filed a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the National Labor Relations Board.
Meanwhile, Amazon says the delivery drivers, which the Teamsters have organized for more than a year, aren’t its employees. Under its business model, the drivers work for third-party businesses, called Delivery Service Partners, who drop off millions of packages to customers everyday.
“For more than a year now, the Teamsters have continued to intentionally mislead the public – claiming that they represent ‘thousands of Amazon employees and drivers’. They don’t, and this is another attempt to push a false narrative,” Amazon spokesperson Kelly Nantel said in a statement. “The truth is that the Teamsters have actively threatened, intimidated, and attempted to coerce Amazon employees and third-party drivers to join them, which is illegal and is the subject of multiple pending unfair labor practice charges against the union.“
The Teamsters have argued Amazon essentially controls everything the drivers do and should be classified as an employer.
Some U.S. labor regulators have sided with the union in filings made before the NLRB. In September, Amazon boosted pay for the drivers amid the growing pressure.
NEW YORK — The Teamsters union is launching a strike against Amazon at numerous locations across the country, including in Maspeth, Queens.
The Teamsters are calling it the largest strike against Amazon in United States history, and it’s set to begin at 6 a.m. Thursday. In addition to New York City, workers will be joining picket lines in Atlanta, Southern California, San Francisco and Illinois.
In a video announcement released Wednesday night, workers voiced their frustrations.
“Us being strike ready means we’re fed up, and Amazon is clearly ignoring us and we want to be heard,” one worker says in the video.
“It’s really exciting. We’re taking steps for ourselves to win better conditions, better benefits, better wages,” another worker in the video says.
The union says it represents about 10,000 Amazon employees and that Amazon ignored a deadline to come to the table and negotiate. The $2 trillion company doesn’t pay employees enough to make ends meet, the union asserts.
At the height of the holiday season, many are wondering what this means for packages currently in transit.
Teamsters President Sean O’Brien said, “If your package is delayed during the holidays, you can blame Amazon’s insatiable greed.”
Amazon says Teamsters are misleading the public
An Amazon spokesperson says the Teamsters are misleading the public and do not represent any Amazon employees, despite any claims.
“The truth is that the Teamsters have actively threatened, intimidated, and attempted to coerce Amazon employees and third-party drivers to join them, which is illegal and is the subject of multiple pending unfair labor practice charges against the union,” the spokesperson said in a statement.
An Amazon representative says the company doesn’t expect operations to be impacted.
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