In June 2022, the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade & stripped away the rights of millions of Americans to control their own body. In his concurring opinion, Clarence Thomas also stated that SCOTUS should “reconsider” its decisions on same-sex marriage & birth control. With House Republicans siding with the Supreme Court’s overreach, we saw an opportunity to put Republicans on defense and shape the narrative of the midterms. Before launching our ads, we tested the message of Republicans wanting to “take away your rights,” and found that it increased a Democratic candidate’s share of the vote by 2 points. Our flagship ad was “Republicans in Your Bedroom,” which received media coverage from outlets such as Newsweek for showcasing the GOP’s plans to restrict reproductive rights.

In the midterms, Democrats became the first party in power since 1934 to gain Senate seats & governorships. Republicans only obtained a 4 seat majority in the House, giving Democrats a strong chance to win the chamber in 2024. While there is no one reason for this success, voters ages 18-29 voted for Democrats 4 points higher than they did in 2020. Youth turnout was also higher than in any midterm election in the past 50 years besides 2018. In total, we ran 92.1 millions ads that disproportionately targeted these young voters (i.e., young Democrats are more likely to not vote in midterms), emphasizing Republican plans to take away the right to abortion & birth control. Exit polls showed our strategy was correct, as reproductive rights was the top issue for Americans ages 18 to 29, twice as much as inflation.

In the 12 competitive races we chose to invest in, Democrats won 10 of them. This includes two major upsets in Ohio’s 1st district & in New Mexico’s 2nd district, which were 2 of the only 3 races in America where a GOP House incumbent lost. We also invested in the sole competitive House race that Democrats won in New York, with Pat Ryan winning NY-19 by 1 point. Of the 10 races we helped win, the Democrat won by just 3.75 points votes on average, meaning that our spending played an important role.