Senate Majority PAC began running a series of digital ads Thursday targeting Sen. Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania—the first salvo, the group says, of a more than $1 million online campaign to target vulnerable Republican senators from now until Election Day.
The ads, which will run on Facebook, Google, and Twitter, accuse Toomey of voting in lockstep with Republican leadership.
“The Republican agenda puts special interests and partisan ideology ahead of what’s best for everyday Americans, and Pat Toomey is the poster boy for those misplaced priorities,” said Shripal Shah, spokesman for Senate Majority PAC. “While Pat Toomey has been loyally voting for his party’s agenda in Washington these past five years, Pennsylvanians have been left behind."
The first-term senator faces a tough reelection in 2016 in a state that traditionally goes blue in presidential years. Toomey, former head of the conservative group Club for Growth, has tried to carve out a reputation as a pragmatic lawmaker since arriving in Washington in 2011, backing moderate compromises on issues like gun control. His team hopes that effort will persuade enough independent-minded voters in the state, even those who plan to back the Democratic presidential nominee, to vote for Toomey.