WASHINGTON–The Credit Union Legislative Action Council (CULAC), CUNA’s PAC, said it will spend more than $2.5 million on advertisements in support of eight credit union “champions” for Congress between now and election day in November.
With the expenditure, CUNA reported its spending on candidates for the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives for the 2022 midterm elections will total $6.5 million.
CUNA said the spending and that of its PAC follows more than $433,000 in campaign ads in the primaries. Additionally, CULAC, in coordination with CUNA’s state League partners, donated $3.6 million directly to 379 candidates for the House and Senate, the organization said. Sixty of those races have been open seats.
The Eight Candidates
The new $2.5 million in spending will specifically back:
- Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV-SEN)
- Rep Don Bacon (R-NE-2)
- Rep. Sanford Bishop (D-GA-2)
- Rep Ashley Hinson (R-IA-2)
- Rep. Annie Kuster (D-NH-2)
- Rep. Elaine Luria (D-VA-2)
- Rep. Chris Pappas (D-NH-1)
- Rep. David Valadao (R-CA-22)
CUNA noted it previously ran ads for Katie Britt (R-AL-SEN) in her successful primary and runoff elections earlier this year.
“We are committed to ensuring the candidates on both sides of the aisle who share the credit union mission are re-elected,” said Trey Hawkins, deputy chief advocacy officer for political action with CUNA.
Hawkins said the new round of spending is aimed at helping candidates who are in “particularly close races.”
Combination of Media
Hawkins said the advertising expenditures will include a combination of media, including traditional independent expenditures in which credit unions engage with the public directly, as well as member communication campaigns that are coordinated with the candidates.
Public media will include cable ads and ads on streaming services such as Roku and Hulu, as well as targeted direct mail, he added.
CUNA reported CULAC and state leagues supported 333 credit union candidates during the midterm primaries with a 96% success rate. Some of the ads CULAC is backing, along with the candidates it is supporting in the upcoming general elections can be found at cuna.org/elections.