Democrats Launch Campaign Ads Featuring Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson

The campaign arm for Senate Democrats is launching an ad campaign in five cities, aiming to remind Black voters that of Republicans’ opposition to the nomination of Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court.

The campaign will run in Black newspapers and online news outlets including the Atlanta Voice, Jacksonville Free Press, Triangle Tribune in North Carolina, Philadelphia Tribune and Milwaukee Courier. The goal is to punish Republican candidates by reminding Black voters in battleground states of their treatment of the first Black woman confirmed to the Supreme Court. Multiple Republicans attacked her judicial record during confirmation hearings and several walked walked out of the Senate chamber on Thursday after the historic, 53-47 vote confirming her to the Court.

“If Senate Republicans had their way Judge Jackson, an exceptionally qualified jurist and the first Black woman to serve on the Supreme Court, wouldn’t have even been given a hearing,” said Freedom Alexander Murphy, a spokesman for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee.

“Republicans’ double standards and ridiculous attacks on Judge Jackson during the confirmation process have underscored the stakes of the 2022 election, and they will only energize Black voters to help protect and expand Democrats’ Senate majority in November.”

The campaign features images of Jackson as she was questioned during her confirmation hearings in March. The tagline reads, “Senate Republicans tried to stop her. We must defend the Democratic Senate.”

The value of the ad buy wasn’t disclosed, but it is part of a larger effort by the DSCC to target voters, especially Black ones, in battleground states with control of Congress on the line later this year. In September, the organization announced it would pour $30 million into a midterm ground effort in Arizona, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, Nevada, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.

In some of those states, Black candidates are battling in Democratic Senate primaries or as incumbents to hold onto Senate seats. Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-GA) is being targeted by Republicans including Donald Trump-backed Hershel Walker, who seek to regain the seat he won in 2020 when he took over the remainder of the late Sen. Johnny Isakson’s term.

In Pennsylvania, State Rep. Malcolm Kenyatta (D-Philadelphia), is one of several candidates running in the Democratic primary, hoping to represent his party in the general election for an open U.S. Senate seat left by the retirement of Republican Pat Toomey.