New $5 million ad campaign boosts House Democrats on health care

Fresh off of last week's State of the Union address, a liberal group is launching a $5 million ad campaign aimed at boosting nine Democratic congressional incumbents by connecting them to legislation aimed at lowering drug prices.

The group, Protect Our Care, will be running television, streaming and digital ads that applaud the lawmakers for measures passed by the Democratic-majority Congress in 2021 to cap insulin costs for Medicare recipients and to allow Medicare to negotiate some prescription drug prices.

The campaign starts Monday and will last a few months, the group told NBC News, including in-person organizing events on top of the advertising push.

“The best way to make sure Americans know about how their members of Congress lowered health care and prescription drug costs is to reach people where they are,” Protect Our Care chair Leslie Dach said in a statement.

“We are telling the American people how the Inflation Reduction Act is bringing down costs for working families and giving people economic relief and a little more breathing room. We urge these members of Congress to continue to lead the fight for reforms like the Lowering Drug Costs for American Families Act so more families can afford their medications.”

The ads come as Democrats mobilize for another election cycle in which they believe they can lean on the issue of health care to help them convince voters to back them. The Protect Our Care campaign comes amid a new flurry of Democratic spending: President Joe Biden’s campaign launched a $30 million ad campaign of its own after the State of the Union to boost the president ahead of his re-election, and he plans to travel the country this month.

Biden touts measures to lower prescription drug and