Demand Justice Launches $1M Ad Blitz Targeting Senate Democrats Over Trump Judicial Confirmations

Demand Justice has launched a weeklong advertising campaign, spending more than $1 million to pressure three senators who voted to confirm several of President Donald Trump’s judicial nominees. The effort singles out Sen. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania, Sen. Maggie Hassan of New Hampshire, and independent Sen. Angus King of Maine, who caucuses with Democrats.

The group says this campaign is just the opening move. Josh Orton, president of Demand Justice, warned the group could escalate its targeting to include more politically vulnerable lawmakers and even those with presidential ambitions if Democrats do not "find their moral compass, and stand up to Trump."

“We want to change Senate Democratic behavior so that they begin acting in a more moral way and in a more politically expedient way,” Orton said.

Demand Justice's push follows a contentious deal to reopen the government, in which eight members of the Senate Democratic caucus — including Fetterman, Hassan and King — joined Republicans. That vote angered many on the party's left and intensified debate within the party over how aggressively to oppose former President Trump.

The group specifically criticizes confirmation hearings for the president’s second-term judicial nominees, noting that some nominees have declined to acknowledge that Trump lost the 2020 election or to describe the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol as a violent insurrection. Orton says Democrats should not provide bipartisan cover for judges who will not answer basic factual questions.

The campaign underscores a wider tension for Democratic leaders: the party base is demanding tougher resistance to what many see as threats to democratic norms, while Senate Democrats are navigating limited leverage in a Washington controlled by Republicans.

Responses from the targeted senators

Sen. John Fetterman defended his record, saying he votes with his party the vast majority of the time and arguing that a 91% alignment suggests strong party unity. "If Democrats have a problem with somebody that votes 91% of the same times as you are — more than nine out of 10 times — then maybe our party has a bigger problem," he said.

Sen. Maggie Hassan said she voted to reopen the government because constituents were suffering and because she judged that Republicans were unlikely to accept a better deal; she also said she supported some of Trump's executive branch nominees whom she considered qualified or acting in good faith.

Sen. Angus King was the only member of the Democratic Caucus to vote to confirm a federal judge in Missouri who, as a lawyer, had worked on cases challenging abortion rights. King later acknowledged that the vote was "a mistake."

As Demand Justice signals possible escalation, the ads could intensify pressure on Senate Democrats to take clearer and tougher public positions on judicial confirmations and on holding nominees to account for their views on recent democratic crises.