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The 2022 midterm cycle will go down in history as the year Democrats defied political gravity, made historic gains in the Senate for a party in power, swept a series of critical battleground races at the state level, and dealt Republicans a third electoral blow in as many cycles by reassembling a pro-democracy coalition.
None of that happened by accident and certainly none of it was baked into the cycle. Democrats overperformed in 2022 because they ran good candidates who ran good campaigns while the party hit the right messaging notes from the White House straight down to the door knockers. And although we don’t have all the data yet, it is clear that this was both base and persuasion election ticket-splitters proving decisive in some of the hardest-fought races.
So with that background, let’s take a look at five great Democratic ads this cycle.
1. Republican Doug Mastriano: Taking Pennsylvania backwards
The Democratic Governor’s Association first general election ad in the Pennsylvania gubernatorial contest began airing in May, highlighting the extreme abortion views of GOP nominee Doug Mastriano. It featured Mastriano’s now-infamous assertion that the phrase “My body, my choice is ridiculous nonsense,” which would become a staple in ads throughout the cycle.
2. Pennsylvania Democrat John Fetterman’s post-stroke “everyman” ad
After a tough week of coverage following an interview in which he used closed captioning, Democratic Senate nominee John Fetterman put out an ad addressing his stroke head-on, the way in which it changed his outlook on life, and the lessons he was bringing back to the campaign trail as his recovery continued. Reporters had spent the past week suggesting the effects of his stroke could doom his candidacy. Fetterman reclaimed the issue and showed how the stroke would make him an even stronger advocate for Pennsylvania families.
3. Warnock camp highlights Trump’s ringing endorsement of Herschel Walker
Amid a rambling announcement of his 2024 bid, Donald Trump urged attendees to vote for Herschel Walker in his upcoming early December runoff against Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock. Trump having just come off a cycle in which he dragged nearly every one of his endorsed candidates down to defeat, the Warnock campaign decided to let Trump’s cinderblock effect go to work on Walker. Thus, for its first runoff ad, the Warnock campaign wanted to make it crystal clear that a vote for Walker was effectively a vote for Trump.
4. Warnock ad featuring voters reacting to a bizarro Walker story
Yes, Warnock gets two ads. After using Trump as a drag on Walker, the campaign released a second ad using Walker as a drag on Walker. The spot packaged together several bizarro stories Walker told on the campaign trail, showing average people marvel at Walker’s ramblings.
5. Closing message: Freedom for all
The closing ad produced by the Democratic group Way to Win centered Americans as the heroes of the American story, the ones who have built this democracy, reformed this democracy, and are once again in the midst of resurrecting it. It is among the most inspirational ads of the cycle, leaving viewers with a sense of urgency, of agency, of their place in history, and of the contribution they can make. “We decide what’s possible—you decide what’s possible.”
