While some Democrats are advertising their resistance to the Affordable Care Act, others, such as Rep. Allyson Schwartz (D-Pa.), are embracing the health care law.
Schwartz is running in a competitive Democratic primary to challenge Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett (R). In her latest TV ad, released Tuesday, she highlights her work on the health care reform bill, saying that she played a leading role in creating the component that prevents insurance companies from denying coverage to people with preexisting conditions.
“I am proud to have worked with President Obama to write and pass the Affordable Care Act, landmark legislation that is helping 8 million Americans get affordable, quality health coverage,” Schwartz said in a statement that accompanied the ad's release. “I worked with the President to make sure insurance companies can no longer deny coverage for children with pre-existing conditions.”
She also hits Corbett for not expanding Medicaid coverage under the law.
Schwartz will face businessman Tom Wolf, state Treasurer Rob McCord and Katie McGinty, who led the state's Department of Environmental Protection, in the May 20 gubernatorial primary.
In the release, Schwartz's campaign seizes on the unique nature of the ad. "Schwartz is one of the only Democrats in the country to tout her support of and involvement in 'Obamacare' in campaign advertising," it notes. The campaign may have made the calculation that the ad would appeal to Philadelphia voters, who are in her congressional district.
A previous ad touted work she did as a state senator to create Pennsylvania's Children's Health Insurance Program.
Congressional candidate and nonprofit executive Elisabeth Jensen took a similar approach last week, releasing a radio ad in which she hits Rep. Andy Barr (R-Ky.) for voting to repeal the state's health care exchange, Kentucky Kynect.
“Thanks to Governor Beshear, Kentucky Kynect provides healthcare to Kentuckians who had no insurance," Jensen says in the ad. "But Barr, along with Mitch McConnell, voted to end Kynect and let insurance companies drop coverage, deny care and charge women more ... [and] cancel insurance policies of 400,000 Kentuckians."
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