EXCLUSIVE — House Democrats’ campaign arm is rolling out a four-figure ad buy targeting House Republicans on the lapse in Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits as the government shutdown enters its record-breaking 36th day.
The ad, shared first with the Washington Examiner, will run in seven battleground districts represented by Reps. David Valadao (R-CA), Monica De La Cruz (R-TX), Bill Huizenga (R-MI), John James (R-MI), Don Bacon (R-NE), Scott Perry (R-PA), and Jen Kiggans (R-VA).
The digital campaign will be tailored to reach Latino, black, Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander (AANHPI) voters, and it will run in both English and Spanish on YouTube.
“Republicans won’t stop ripping food away from kids, seniors, and hard-working parents who are already struggling to keep food in their fridges,” Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee Nebeyatt Betre said in a statement. “On top of gutting SNAP benefits earlier this year, vulnerable House Republicans have refused to lift a finger as their constituents have less food at home ahead of the holidays. The DCCC is making sure voters know how cruel Republicans’ agenda really is.”
With the shutdown barreling along, SNAP has become a pressure point as Republicans seek to force Senate Democrats’ hands to vote for the short-term spending deal, which has a rapidly approaching deadline of Nov. 21. SNAP benefits lapsed in many states beginning Nov. 1, with the Trump administration originally stating it would not use the program’s contingency funds to send out the benefits.
A federal court order ruled that the Trump administration needed to tap into that fund, and the president confused many by saying SNAP aid would go out “only when the Radical Left Democrats open up the government, which they can easily do, and not before!”
Lawyers for the White House told the court on Monday that it would tap into the contingency pot, and the Department of Agriculture would send out guidance to states to calculate the benefits per household so they can begin dispersing the funds. Secretary Brooke Rollins said it would likely be a “cumbersome process” with weekslong delays, and the White House said it would “take some time.”
In the Senate, there are rival bills from Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) and Sen. Ben Ray Luján (D-NM) to fund SNAP during the shutdown, and there is a similar companion bill in the House led by New Mexico Democrats. Republicans like Reps. Rob Bresnahan (R-PA) and Mariannette Miller-Meeks (R-IA) have also introduced bills to fund SNAP and the Women, Infants, and Children nutrition program.
But Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) has refused to bring stand-alone bills to fund things like SNAP or the military, arguing that they already voted to fund those agencies through the short-term spending deal passed Sept. 19.
“House Democrats voted to shut down the government and cut off SNAP for millions of families,” National Republican Congressional Committee spokesperson Mike Marinella said in a statement to the Washington Examiner. “Republicans fought to keep food on the table for working Americans, Democrats chose chaos and put politics over working families.”
The ads come after a victorious night for Democrats in the 2025 elections, particularly for the DCCC. Rep. Mikie Sherrill (D-NJ) and former Rep. Abigail Spanberger (D-VA) were elected to serve as governors of New Jersey and Virginia, respectively. Democrats also maintained the New York City mayor’s mansion with a win from Zohran Mamdani.
Democrats are looking to use the momentum from the election night wins to demand Republicans meet them at the negotiating table to end the government shutdown, which broke the record for the longest shutdown in U.S. history on Wednesday.
The party is insistent that Tuesday night’s victories are indicative that voters are rejecting President Donald Trump and the GOP trifecta’s agenda, and even Trump himself admitted that the 2025 elections were a rebuke of GOP policies and that Republicans are “getting killed” over the shutdown.
House Republican leadership disagrees, saying on Wednesday that the elections are “not a reflection about Republicans at all” and “off-year elections are not indicative of what’s to come.”
But 2025 is just another reminder to the GOP that they have an uphill battle to maintain their razor-thin majority in the House in the 2026 midterms. Historically, the House has flipped to the party opposite the White House in the midterms, and Democrats only need a net gain of three seats to regain control of the chamber, which they recently held from 2019 to 2023.
Among the DCCC targets for this ad are Bacon, who has announced he is not seeking reelection, and James, who is running for governor of Michigan.
CONGRESSIONAL DEMOCRATS SENSE OPPORTUNITY TO FINALLY GET BALL ROLLING ON ENDING SHUTDOWN
Voters approved Proposition 50 on Tuesday, which allows the state legislature to adopt a new map and effectively write out five vulnerable Republicans from their districts. Valadao is among the five.
Kiggans could also be a victim of redistricting after Virginia announced last month it would hold a special session to redraw congressional lines. Both Virginia and California are engaging in redistricting to offset the GOP’s gerrymandering efforts in Texas to add five seats to the House GOP delegation.
