Christopher Sebastian is a Senior Analyst for Kantar/CMAG.
Early last week, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer set a new October 31st deadline for the passage of the remainder of President Joe Biden’s Build Back Better plan, composed of the administration’s proposed infrastructure policies not found in the earlier “American Rescue Plan”. As Democrats continue to debate the proposed bills, one advocacy group closely aligned with the administration faces a challenging environment.
Building Back Together (a 501(c)(4) political organization) was launched in February 2021 as a legally unaffiliated public relations arm for Biden’s push for physical and social infrastructure reforms. While an independent group, those involved with Building Back Together are closely aligned with the administration and have been singularly driven towards the implementation of the president’s goals. By late April they had taken to broadcast, cable, and satellite to run general issue ads supportive of Biden’s policies in key swing states.
As key pieces of Biden’s plan began winding their way through Congress, the group made few changes to their advertising strategy. In May, BBT spent $2.3 million across Arizona, Georgia, Nevada, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. In July, the group shifted its focus to Washington, D.C., spending $550,000 in that market by the end of the month. August marked the beginning of the group’s direct intervention in specific Congressional races.
Building Back Together’s “Breakthrough” campaign began on broadcast on August 12th, just two days after Senate Democrats passed the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. This act represented only a partial realization of the administration’s goals – the second part of their proposal, concerning physical infrastructure.
While the proposed bill was not the full promised package, Building Back Together nevertheless began targeting senators in potential battleground states with a slate...