• IL-Sen: Republican Sen. Mark Kirk bashes Trump in Spanish; however, his spot seems to be running for just a small $4,900 so far. Democrat Tammy Duckworth emphasizes her perseverance after her father lost her job and after she lost her legs in Iraq.
• LA-Sen: Warrior PAC promotes Republican Rob Maness’ military background. According to LAPolitics, the size of the buy is $200,000.
• MO-Sen: In a minute-long spot, Democrat Jason Kander features footage of soldiers running through a desert environment as he says that, “There are a lot of men and women serving their country overseas that never ask what’s in it for them.” Kander reminds the audience that he served alongside those soldiers and continues, “I don’t want the sacrifices made in Iraq and Afghanistan to be forgotten in Washington. But there are far too many who put their party, their pay raises, and their political careers ahead of doing what’s right for our country.”
Kander doesn’t mention or show Republican Sen. Roy Blunt, but it’s very clear that he’s working to frame this as a contest between someone who served his country in uniform and a longtime politician who enjoys the perks of power. In fact, a recent commercial from End Citizens United made that explicit argument. It won’t be easy for Kander to unseat Blunt in a state that Donald Trump is likely (though not assured) to win, and this type of message is probably his best weapon. Republicans aren’t sitting by though: Blunt and his allies have run ads arguing that Kander is a hardcore liberal and attacking his performance as secretary of state.
• NC-Sen: The NRA argues that Democrat Deborah Ross is an anti-gun fanatic.
• NH-Sen: The Orwellian-named Security is Strength spends $144,000 on a spot portraying Democrat Maggie Hassan on weak on terrorism.
• NV-Sen: The Senate Leadership Fund argues that as attorney general, Democrat Catherine Cortez Masto didn’t know about a backlog of untested rape kits. The spot features a clip of Cortez Masto being asked about the problem at a hearing and replying that she wasn’t aware of the issue. Cortez Masto’s camp says that the backlog was due a lack of funding that was out of her control, and that she managed to secure the federal funding.
• OH-Sen: Democrat Ted Strickland features auto workers praising him for pushing the auto bailout, and hitting Republican Sen. Rob Portman for calling the auto rescue “a lousy deal.” It’s a good ad, and hopefully, it’s not too late in the race for this type of message to be effective.
• WI-Sen: Republican Sen. Ron Johnson features a couple praising him for helping them cut through the red tape so they could get their adopted baby daughter out of the Democratic Republic of the Congo before it was too late.
• MO-Gov: Republican Eric Greitens once again features a veteran praising Greitens and his charity, and calling Democrat Chris Koster “shameless.”
• MT-Gov: Republican Greg Gianforte goes negative for the first time. A woman argues that Democratic Gov. Steve Bullock (whom she doesn’t mention by name) hasn’t done anything to help small towns like hers.
• NC-Gov: A little while ago, Republican Gov. Pat McCrory featured a sexual abuse survivor named Gina Little defending his anti-LGBT law HB2 in a spot. McCrory’s new ad stars Little arguing that under Democrat Roy Cooper, the state crime lab takes far too long to process rape kits.
• WV-Gov: Democrat Jim Justice emphasizes his business career, and argues that Republican Bill Cole wasted taxpayer money on a legislative special session that accomplished nothing.
• IA-01: Democrat Monica Vernon uses Republican Rep. Rod Blum’s words against him. Blum is shown nonchalantly declaring, “We’ve shut down the government before,” and saying that "we've got to raise the retirement age.” The narrator goes on to praise Vernon. It’s a good message, though the line about raising the retirement age will likely register far more with audiences than the government shutdown one.
• MI-07: Democrat Gretchen Driskell continues to tie Republican Rep. Tim Walberg to trade deals. The narrator goes on to say that “[j]ust last year, he voted to give Obama enhanced power to negotiate TPP.” Romney won this southern Michigan seat by a small 51-48, so it’s a bit jarring to hear Obama-bashing come from a Democrat. However, this seat has a relatively small proportion of college graduates, so Donald Trump may be doing well enough here that Driskell feels the need to distance herself from the president.
• MN-02: A crazy opponent is a terrible thing to waste, and Democrat Angie Craig knows it. Her spot features clips of Republican Jason Lewis declaring, “If you don’t want to own a slave, don’t, but don’t tell other people they can’t,” and, “Since women are ignorant, they are simply ignorant of the important issues in life. Somebody’s got to educate them.” The ad concludes with Lewis saying “a mass majority of young single women who couldn’t explain what GDP means. They care about abortion and gay marriage. They care about The View. They are non-thinking.”
• MN-08: Democratic Rep. Rick Nolan goes to a farm and talks about his work on the No Budget, No Pay Act. Republican Stewart Mills denounces DC insiders and chops wood in a shot that almost looks like an outtake from The Shining.
• NH-02: Democratic Rep. Annie Kuster features the mother of the victim of a drug overdose praising Kuster for her work fighting the opioid epidemic.
• NJ-05: Campaign for American Principles, a group that was set up by a Princeton professor to help socially conservative candidates, spends $145,000 on a spot to help Republican Rep. Scott Garrett. They argue that Democrat Josh Gottheimer is a DC insider while Garrett is fighting wasteful spending and to protect the environment, and they wisely don’t talk about his anti-gay views.
• NV-04: Democrat Ruben Kihuen’s first ad features a clip of Republican Rep. Cresent Hardy declaring that it’s a “blatant lie” that public education is underfunded in Nevada. The narrator bemoans that, while Nevada ranks 49th in education funding, Hardy opposed Republican Gov. Brian Sandoval’s education package. Kihuen then says how he worked with Sandoval to make corporations pay their fair share to improve education.
• NY-19: The Congressional Leadership Fund goes right for Democrat Zephyr Teachout’s Achilles' heel and argues that she’s a carpetbagger from New York City. They also say she underpaid her own taxes but wants to raise other people’s.
• NY-21: Democrat Mike Derrick argues that Republican Rep. Elise Stefanik is in the pocket of Wall Street, while he pledges to fight unfair trade deals.
• NY-22: Independent Martin Babinec features local people praising his work creating jobs.