Liberal group salutes Bennet, Hickenlooper for COVID-19 bill vote with digital ads
A leading liberal health care reform advocacy group is launching a digital ad campaign to applaud Colorado’s two U.S. senators and other Democrats who supported the $1.9 trillion pandemic relief bill signed Thursday night by President Joe Biden, part of a multi-pronged effort to promote the sweeping package.
“Democrats are delivering lower health care costs, expanding coverage and addressing racial disparities so people can get the health care they need to defeat this pandemic,” said Brad Woodhouse, executive director of Protect Our Care, in a statement.
The group’s five-figure campaign highlights provisions of the bill, known as the American Rescue Plan, including $1,400 checks that will soon be on their way to most Americans and funding to ramp up vaccination efforts as part of an accelerated schedule Biden outlined Thursday.
A companion campaign rips Republican lawmakers for voting against the legislation, which passed on a nearly party-line vote.
Individual ads are tailored for 20 Democratic lawmakers and 10 Republicans, mostly in swing districts and states. Bennet and Hickenlooper are the only Coloradans targeted.
Watch the Hickenlooper ad here
The Biden administration and supportive groups are embarking on an effort to promote the benefits of the bill, which has the support of 61% of Americans, including nearly all Democrats, 58% of independents and 26% of Republicans, an Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll found last week.
Vice President Kamala Harris is scheduled to make a stop in Denver on Tuesday to tout the bill’s benefits.
Said Woodhouse: “Facing this pandemic, no one who voted against the American Rescue Plan can hide from their vote, and no one who voted for it should be shy about screaming it from the rooftops. The American Rescue Plan is absolutely critical in pulling our country out of this pandemic and getting it under control.”
A spokeswoman pointed to an analysis that predicts millions of Americans will save hundreds in health care costs due to the legislation, which Kaiser Health News says includes “some of the most significant changes to insurance affordability in more than a decade.”
Hickenlooper, who was elected to a six-year term in November, is one of just two senators in the group’s ad campaign who aren’t up for election next year.
Bennet, who has yet to formally announce whether he’s running for a third term, has yet to draw a Republican opponent.


