MEMO: HMP Launches $100 Million Reproductive Freedom Accountability Fund

In 2022, Republican extremism embodied by the GOP’s shameless pursuit to ban abortion played a major factor in House Democrats outperforming a tough midterm political environment. House Majority PAC (HMP) held Republicans accountable last cycle, with 42% of all advertisements mentioning reproductive rights. 

This threat is even more salient in 2024 as the Republican House majority, state legislatures and the courts continue to restrict access to and ban not just abortion – but birth control, IVF, and reproductive freedom at large. In the fight to win the majority in 2024, HMP will create a stark contrast for voters: Democrats are working to grow the economy and lower costs for American families while Republicans are obsessed with banning abortion and ripping away American freedoms.  

This is why HMP is proud to announce the Reproductive Freedom Accountability Fund. 

This campaign will be waged in swing districts across the country and is an $100 million investment in advertising and voter mobilization. 

To fully fund this extremely effective messaging against House Republicans, we need your help. 

Republicans Are Lost On Reproductive Rights

Republicans have continually downplayed the importance of reproductive rights on the campaign trail, with NRCC Chair Richard Hudson going so far as claiming, “This is not an election year issue for congressional races.”

• In March, the NRCC published a memo that showed just how out-of-touch they are with the American public by stating that Republicans have a “brand problem, not a policy problem.”
• In reality, the facts tell a very different story: attempts by House Republicans to restrict access to and ban abortion, birth control, IVF, and mifepristone are wildly unpopular. 
• The toxic votes taken by Republicans in blue states will prove to be career killers – and you can expect HMP to use the following extremist votes extensively in paid media throughout the fall:
  • In California, Reps. David Valadao, Mike Garcia, and Michelle Steel have all co-sponsored the Life At Conception Act – which puts IVF and fertility treatments at risk.
  • In New York and California, Reps. Brandon Williams, John Duarte, Mike Garcia, Ken Calvert, and Michelle Steel all supported restricting access to abortion in their blue states by voting to outlaw mifepristone being prescribed virtually or picked up at retail pharmacies.
  • Other vulnerable Republicans in blue states – including Reps. Lori Chavez-DeRemer, Tom Kean Jr., Mike Lawler, Anthony D’Esposito, Marc Molinaro, and Nick LaLota – supported restricting access to abortion by voting to prohibit service members from being reimbursed for abortion services.
• If this is truly Republicans’ preferred plan of attack, House Democrats can win on this issue by even larger margins than 2022. The GOP’s inability to see that the majority of Americans disagree with their attempts to rip away rights will be advantageous to Democrats. 

HMP’s Plan Of Attack

Last month, HMP announced a historic $186 million media reservation in media markets and districts that overwhelmingly favor abortion rights. The Reproductive Freedom Accountability Fund will spend $85 million on paid messaging, just less than half of HMP’s total media reservation from April. Below you can find a sampling of media markets in which HMP made initial reservations where reproductive freedom will be a critical issue:

• Denver: $3.9 million
• Detroit: $8.4 million
• Lansing: $3.1 million
• Las Vegas: $6.9 million
• Los Angeles: $18 million
• New York City: $16 million
• Phoenix: $5.7 million
• Portland: $9.5 million

Reproductive freedom has proven to be an effective message across the country. This is evident from the success of ballot measures in deep red Kansas to blue states with local abortion protections – and the February special election in NY-03 showed concretely that blue state Republicans can run, but they can’t hide. 

In the NY-03 special election, Democrats greatly improved their performance from two years ago – from losing the district by 8% in 2022 to winning by 8% in February 2024. HMP was the largest advertiser in the special election and communicated on reproductive rights more than any other issue, helping contribute to the 16% swing towards Democrats in the district.

Get Out The Vote and Mobilization

In addition to being a powerful persuasion message, reproductive freedoms are some of the top issues that mobilize the Democratic base.  

The Reproductive Freedom Accountability Fund plans to spend $10 million to support voter registration and mobilization campaigns, particularly in non-Presidential or Senate battleground states that lack top of the ticket GOTV investments. 

These mobilization efforts will include but are not limited to New York, California, Oregon, Washington, and Virginia. The mobilization campaigns will include mail and digital advertising as well as door to door canvassing and peer to peer texting. 

Public Opinion Research

In August of 2022, HMP conducted extensive public opinion research on how to best execute reproductive freedom messaging in 30 second and 15 second ads – this included a project that tested 36 different versions of pro-choice ads across a diverse range of swing districts.  

The Reproductive Freedom Accountability Fund will build upon this research and adapt it to 2024, where this issue will be hotly debated in the presidential race as the aftermath of overturning Roe v. Wade continues to produce new abortion bans in states across the country.  

HMP will also use district-level polling to explore how to best localize these messages against specific Republican candidates. The research will cost $5M and include polling, focus groups, and ad testing. 

Summary 

HMP is the largest independent expenditure on behalf of House Democrats and dedicating $100M to communicate on reproductive freedoms shows our strategic belief that the path to the Majority runs through branding House Republicans as extreme in their pursuit to restrict access to and ban abortion, birth control, IVF, and mifepristone.

We need your help to support ongoing projects nationwide and stay on pace to reach our overall cycle goal – please consider supporting HMP this year. 

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