Democrats are taking to the airwaves to attack Republicans on potential Medicaid cuts, with ads in at least four states featuring a chainsaw-wielding Elon Musk.
In the TV and digital ads, part of a seven-figure buy from House Majority PAC, the flagship Democratic super PAC, Democrats harp on President Donald Trump and Republicans’ campaign pitch in 2024, when “they claimed they’d lower costs.”
“Instead, Trump and Speaker [Mike] Johnson are set to kick millions off of health insurance. They deny it, but look what they just did,” the narrator continues. “Passing their big budget bill that opens the door to $880 billion in Medicaid cuts, threatening 70 million Americans who rely on Medicaid, half of them children.”
The ads will target vulnerable GOP congressional members in California, Michigan, Arizona and Pennsylvania. The ads will start airing next week, HMP communications director C.J. Warnke confirmed.
The ads represent an early effort in the midterm messaging campaign that Democrats are banking on in their effort to regain the majority in 2026. Democrats are planning to hammer Republicans for their budget vote this week, which could threaten funding to Medicaid and other social safety-net programs, while yoking them to Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency.
HMP did not release the full list of districts that it plans to go after, but Warnke did name-check at least one definite target: Rep. David Valadao (D-Calif.), where more than three in five of his constituents rely on Medicaid.
Trump, for his part, has insisted that Medicaid and Medicare “isn’t going to be touched.” But even some House Republicans have raised concerns about how to achieve Trump’s tax cut plans without affecting Medicaid funding.
