WATCH: New TV Ad from Opportunity Wisconsin Features La Crosse Area Resident Calling on Senator Johnson to Support Relief Checks

Tuesday, February 23, 2021

“Ron Johnson has done everything he can to stop us from getting relief.” 

New ad [“Lorin”] is third installment in Opportunity Wisconsin’s $1M statewide campaign, which received national attention during last week’s launch  

MADISON, Wis.— Opportunity Wisconsin today launched its third ad as part of  a $1 million statewide TV ad campaign calling on Senator Ron Johnson to stop blocking relief checks for Wisconsin families as part of COVID relief legislation. The ads are blanketing most of the state for the next several weeks leading up to an expected vote in March on the American Rescue Plan. The ad campaign kicks off Opportunity Wisconsin’s 2021 work holding Senator Johnson accountable and urging him to support legislation that will help Wisconsin families.  

The new spot features Lorin, a restaurant general manager from Warrens. Lorin, his wife, and kids are now living paycheck to paycheck after using their savings  during the pandemic. In the ad, Lorin urges his fellow Wisconsinites to call Senator Johnson and demand that he back relief checks. The ad is running alongside previous ads, Jessica” and “Tricia,” in the Milwaukee, Green Bay, Madison, and La Crosse markets. Last week, Opportunity Wisconsin also took out a full-page ad in the Oshkosh Northwestern, Senator Johnson’s hometown newspaper, to make sure he heard the message about relief checks loud and clear. 

“My wife and I did have money saved for emergencies. Your savings can only bail you out for so long. Senator Ron Johnson has done everything he can to stop us from getting relief and he just did it again,” said Lorin, in the new ad. “He just voted against $1,400 checks for people who work for a living. When you’re slowly sinking, just to get your head back above water for a little bit makes a big difference.”    

[WATCH LORIN'S FULL AD]

A provision in the American Rescue Plan to send $1,400 checks to American families who need it most would give $7.8 billion to Wisconsin families, helping 4 million adults and 1.5 million children in the state. In 2017, Senator Johnson eagerly supported a $1.9 trillion tax giveaway to America’s billionaires. Yet in December, he led the charge to stop a bipartisan effort to provide similar relief checks to Wisconsinites, with Politico writing that Johnson was “the guy who twice shut down...stimulus checks that would have gone to hundreds of thousands of his constituents.” And just earlier this month, Senator Johnson argued against additional COVID relief, claiming Wisconsinites have “excess savings.” His constituents highlighted in these ads would strongly disagree.     

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