A super PAC supporting former President Donald Trump’s reelection campaign is out with a seven-figure ad buy in New Hampshire and Iowa attacking Ron DeSantis on his prior stances on Medicare and Social Security.
The ad, from Make America Great Again Inc., hits the Florida governor on his past voting record when it comes to Medicare and Social Security when he was a member of Congress.
DESANTIS-ALIGNED PAC PAINTS PAINTS FLORIDA GOVERNOR AS TRUMP SUCCESSOR
“Ron DeSantis tried to cut seniors' benefits,” the narrator in the ad says. “In Congress, DeSantis voted three times to cut Social Security. Even to privatize Medicare. Worse? DeSantis wanted to raise the retirement age to 70. Ron DeSantis would make us work longer to get less.”
According to Medium Buying, an ad-tracking firm, the total cost of the ad is $836,000 in Iowa and $658,000 in New Hampshire, the two early states in the Republican presidential primary. The ad is scheduled to run from May 2 to May 11. It is the first early-state ad buy the group has done, according to Medium Buying.
MAGA Inc. has previously purchased national airtime with a different ad on Fox News, CNN, and Newsmax attacking DeSantis on the same votes.
DeSantis has not yet announced his presidential campaign but is widely expected to jump into the race after the Florida legislative session ends. NBC News reported last week that DeSantis is poised to announce an exploratory committee in mid-May.
The ad contrasts DeSantis’s votes with what Trump has said he will do if reelected.
It quotes Trump saying he “will protect Medicare and Social Security.”
“President Trump promised … President Trump delivers, and he always will,” the narrator said.
In response to the ad, Erin Perrine, communications director for the pro-DeSantis super PAC Never Back Down, said, "Gov. DeSantis has made it clear that Social Security cuts are off the table.”
“Donald Trump is the one who, like the rest of the Washington establishment, spent years touting cuts for entitlement programs,” Perrine said in the statement. “Now, Trump is parroting Joe Biden and Nancy Pelosi’s talking points against a governor who is not even in the race.”
The Washington Examiner has previously reported that when he first ran for governor in 2018, DeSantis’s Republican opponent, Adam Putnam, made the same claims that DeSantis supported budget resolutions in 2013, 2014, and 2015 that called for raising the retirement age and halting spending rates.
Independent fact-checker PolitiFact found Putnam’s claims to be only “half-true” because “even if they had passed, nonbinding resolutions alone do not change law, and therefore don’t cut any seniors’ benefits.”
A DeSantis spokeswoman declined to comment and referred the Washington Examiner to this article.
A spokesperson for MAGA Inc. did not respond to a request for comment.
MAGA Inc. has been supporting Trump since September of last year. It is run by former top Trump lieutenants, including Taylor Budowich, who previously served as Trump’s communications director, Chris LaCivita, who ran a pro-Trump super PAC during his 2020 reelection bid, and Tony Fabrizio, Trump’s longtime pollster.
Never Back Down, the pro-DeSantis PAC, released a new ad titled “Winner” over the weekend, which painted the Florida governor as Trump’s successor.
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In a recent Wall Street Journal poll, 51% of Republican voters say they support Trump compared to 38% saying they support DeSantis. Trump is also leading DeSantis in national endorsements, with more than 50 members of Congress expressing their support for the former president, with 11 of those being from DeSantis’s home state of Florida.
DeSantis does have a sizable war chest and leads the field when it comes to campaign cash on hand.