Planned Parenthood’s political action committee will devote $20 million to mobilize voters across the country for the 2018 midterm elections, the group announced Wednesday.
The women’s health and abortion provider group’s PAC, called Planned Parenthood Votes, said that the campaign would be the largest ground game effort ever for a midterm. It will target states that include Arizona, Minnesota, Georgia, Florida, Michigan, Ohio, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania.
The campaign was launched as confirmation hearings for Supreme Court pick Brett Kavanaugh continue in the Senate Judiciary Committee. Abortion rights groups charge that Kavanaugh would vote to overturn Roe v. Wade, the 1973 landmark ruling that made abortion a constitutional right, if he gets on the high court.
[Related: Planned Parenthood targets Brett Kavanaugh with new ads as Supreme Court nomination hearings start]
“Our top priority is person-to-person, grassroots voter contact,” said Deirdre Schifeling, Planned Parenthood Votes’ executive director, on a call with reporters. “A huge amount of that budget is spent on organizers on the ground.”
Planned Parenthood Votes is also joining a separate $30 million ground game effort that includes the Service Employees International Union and the racial justice organization Color of Change PAC.
But Planned Parenthood Votes declined to say if it would pull support for vulnerable red state Democrats that vote for Kavanaugh.
So far, none of the three Democrats that vote for Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch last year — Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota, Joe Donnelly of Indiana and Joe Manchin of West Virginia — have announced their decision on Kavanaugh.
All are up for re-election this fall in states that Trump won by double digits in 2016.
Planned Parenthood Votes is “definitely communicating with all senators on how they think and feel,” Schifeling said. “The vast majority of the American public does not want to see Kavanaugh confirmed. Any senator would be wise to hear that.”
