(Des Moines, Iowa) – Iowa Republican congressional candidates and supporters are bumping up campaign advertising in races that Democratic officials have targeted as potential pick-ups in the 2024 general election. The Iowa Capital Dispatch reports that while Republican incumbents are favored to win in Iowa’s congressional races, leaders with groups like the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, the U.S. House Democrats’ campaign arm, have recently announced $2.5 million in ad buys for Iowa races they say pit Democratic challengers against “vulnerable” Republicans.

The ad reservations included purchases Iowa’s 3rd Congressional District, where Democrat Lanon Baccam challenges U.S. Rep. Zach Nunn, and in Iowa’s 1st Congressional District, where Democrat Christina Bohannan challenges U.S. Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks.

As Democrats look to make these races more competitive, Republican organizations have also made advertising investments to help Nunn and Miller-Meeks defend their seats. The American Action Network, the advocacy nonprofit working alongside the U.S. House GOP’s Congressional Leadership Fund, announced Thursday that it would spend $5 million on campaign ads supporting 18 House Republican candidates, including Nunn and Miller-Meeks in Iowa.

U.S. Reps. Zach Nunn and Mariannette Miller-Meeks, incumbent Republicans, are defending their seats against Democratic challengers in the 2024 general election. (Photos by Robin Opsahl/Iowa Capital Dispatch; photo illustration via Canva)

The organization is running ads calling for Iowans to tell Nunn and Miller-Meeks to “keep fighting to lower costs” as well as asking for the Republican lawmakers to support the Red Tape Reduction Act, a measure supported by U.S. Rep. Ashley Hinson, another Iowa Republican. The proposal would codify some executive orders made by former President Donald Trump related to limiting and tracking federal regulatory costs.

Dan Conston, president of the American Action Network, said in a statement that the latest ad buys are a means to combat measures passed by Democrats during President Joe Biden’s administration. The group’s ads supporting Iowa Republicans both highlighted the incumbents’ efforts to lower Iowans’ cost of living, but advertising efforts in other states, like Colorado and New Mexico, focus on the Biden administration’s immigration policy. Republicans have heavily criticized Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, the 2024 Democratic presidential nominee, for inadequate enforcement of immigration laws along the country’s southern border.

On Friday, Nunn released an ad titled “Safe” that argues Biden and Harris “refuse to secure our border,” linking illegal immigration to increasing problems across the country. While Nunn has pitched himself as a moderate candidate committed to working across the aisle, he has also emphasized border security — an top issue for Republicans heading into the November election. Speaking at the Iowa State Fair earlier in August, Nunn said the U.S.-Mexico border is the “number one issue” he hears about from constituents.

Democrats and some advocates have argued that Republicans are unfairly linking immigration to issues like the fentanyl crisis, as the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration has reported that most fentanyl is trafficked into the country through legal ports of entry by citizens, not by undocumented immigrants.

Additionally, the U.S. Customs and Border Protection has reported that undocumented migrant crossings have declined every month for the past five months, according to reporting by USA Today, with July having the lowest level of migrant apprehensions during Biden’s tenure.

In a news release on the ad, Nunn said he spent time in the military fighting to protect and defend America, but that “the Biden-Harris open border crisis is making that even harder.”