DNC targets Heller with billboard ads

Even if Sen. Dean Heller (R-Nev.) unplugs over congressional recess, he won’t be able to escape Democratic attack ads needling him over his vote to repeal ObamaCare.

The Democratic National Committee (DNC) on Monday is unveiling two billboards — one near the Las Vegas strip and another in the form of a mobile billboard that will drive around Heller’s Las Vegas office — to criticize Heller. 

The ads, first shared with The Hill, include images of Heller smiling during a meeting with President Trump about healthcare. The mobile video ad includes that footage playing on a loop while telling Heller to “wipe that grin off his face and start working for Nevadans.”

“Senator Heller broke his promise to improve health care for his constituents, voting for a bill that would take health care away from millions of Americans. A repeal of the Affordable Care Act would result in as many as 371,000 Nevadans losing their health care, and cause Nevada to lose 22,100 jobs,”  DNC Chairman Tom Perez said in a statement. 

“While Senator Heller and Republicans remain committed to an agenda that prioritizes the wealthy, Democrats will continue to fight for working families in Nevada and across the country and Nevadans will hold him accountable in November.”

Heller frustrated both sides of the aisle with his wavering on the healthcare vote. He initially held a press conference alongside Republican Gov. Brian Sandoval, where he expressed concerns about ending ObamaCare’s Medicaid expansion to the chagrin of many Republicans pushing for a united front around the repeal effort. But after a public push by Republican leadership and Trump, he subsequently voted for the GOP’s repeal in a late-night vote. 

Democrats have seized on that vote as a key theme in a state that Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton narrowly won in 2016. And Rep. Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.), Heller’s top Democratic challenger in 2018, is using the vote as a centerpiece of her campaign.

Republicans are also coming out with their own billboard to slam Rosen. Theirs will target Rosen for a vote against legislation to overhaul the Department of Veterans Affairs. It shows a picture of Rosen alongside a picture of House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) in the hopes of framing Rosen as in lock-step with Pelosi.

“Nevada’s veterans should not have to pay the price for Jacky Rosen’s loyalty to radical liberal Nancy Pelosi and her out-of-touch policies,” National Republican Senatorial Committee spokesman Michael McAdams said in a statement. “Nevada voters want elected officials who will put the needs of Nevadans before partisan allegiance.”

The GOP bought the billboard near two Reno, Nev., posts of the Veterans of Foreign Wars.

—This post was updated on Tuesday, August 15