Washington — Today, the national grassroots conservative group Heritage Action for America announced a $500,000 ad campaign in West Virginia and Arizona to oppose the confirmation of Xavier Becerra to lead the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). The campaign includes TV ads and digital ads.
“Sens. Mark Kelly, Kyrsten Sinema, and Joe Manchin are critical senators in opposing the extreme agenda of Biden’s HHS nominee, Xavier Becerra,” said Heritage Action Executive Director Jessica Anderson in a statement Wednesday. “Mr. Becerra has spent his entire career fighting for socialized health care, catering to the abortion industry, and trampling on Americans’ religious freedom. And as these ads highlight, he has pushed to open our borders during a global pandemic and declared “guns are a ‘public health crisis.’” He is the wrong nominee to lead HHS and should not be supported by senators from the great states of Arizona, West Virginia, or the rest of the country."
The campaign will split the ad money between Arizona and West Virginia and will launch ahead of Becerra’s Senate Finance hearing vote on Wednesday. The ads highlight Becerra’s lack of healthcare experience along with a record of suing Catholic nuns, supporting gun control, and advocating for open borders.
Excerpt from TV ads:
“Becerra has zero medical experience. Unless you count suing Catholic nuns, trying to force them to pay for abortions. And during a pandemic, Becerra wants open borders even as caravans of illegals head North. Our Senators promised to protect Arizona, and our country.” Here’s their chance.”
The full ad spots can be found here for Arizona and for West Virginia.
Additionally, Heritage Action will issue a key vote against Becerra’s confirmation, and the vote will appear on the annual Heritage Action Senate scorecard.
Background: Xavier Becerra served from 1993 to 2017 as a Democratic member of the House of Representatives before serving as Attorney General for California. In his first term in office, Becerra introduced legislation to create a government-run health care system. In 2016, he led an effort to expand Obamacare coverage to illegal immigrants. As Attorney General, Becerra sued the Little Sisters of the Poor, a group of Catholic nuns, to force them to pay for birth control against their deeply held religious beliefs.
After Biden announced his nomination of Becerra and other extreme nominees like Neera Tanden and Alejandro Mayorkas, Heritage Action called on Senators to oppose their confirmations, and later key voted against both Mayorkas and Tanden.
Politifact rated Heritage Action’s first television ad as TRUE when looking specifically at Becerra’s support for government-run health care.