Labor group launches $1 million TV ad campaign urging Sen. Ron Johnson to stop blocking COVID-19 relief checks

A $1 million statewide television ad campaign set to launch Tuesday by a coalition of labor advocates and liberal activists is calling on Republican U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson to stop blocking stimulus checks included in COVID-19 relief legislation being considered by the Senate.

The group, Opportunity Wisconsin, is running TV ads in the Milwaukee, Green Bay, Madison and La Crosse media markets. The group also says it took out a full-page ad Tuesday in the Oshkosh Northwestern, Johnson's hometown newspaper.

The ad campaign will launch the same day President Joe Biden is scheduled to arrive in Wisconsin for a CNN Presidential Town Hall at the Pabst Theater in Milwaukee, where he is expected to make the case for passage of his $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief plan.

Johnson has twice voted to block stimulus checks. He's argued that COVID-19 relief efforts need to be more focused, and raised concerns about the country's debt.

The new ads feature Jessica Krell, a Horicon mother who's been working to help her father and grandparents over the last year, and Tricia Peterson, a Juneau child care center director.

"I mean, 2020 was awful. Not only emotionally draining, but financially draining," Krell says in one ad, later adding, "It makes me feel like we don't matter to him."

In Peterson's ad, she says, "As a daycare director, I see every day how our families are struggling. Kids just share their stories. 'Well, mom and dad said we can't have dinner tonight, because we don't have any food.' Or, 'We can't pay our house rent, so we may get kicked out.'"

The segments targeting Johnson kick off the group's political ads for the year.

In an interview with the Journal Sentinel, Peterson said her child care business, Future All Stars Academy, lost 48% of its budget last year.

"I feel like everyone is struggling," she said. "Families are trying to make ends meet."

She said the stimulus checks could help families "just get ahead," by helping them with a rent check or a child care payment.

And Krell said it was devastating for her to see Johnson blocking the stimulus checks.

"I mean, my mind was blown," she said. "It did upset me that he's always blocking it when we have such struggling families in Wisconsin."

The group said it would continue to target Johnson, who may — or may not — seek reelection in 2022.

On the Democratic side, Outagamie County Executive Tom Nelson has already declared his candidacy. 

Contact Mary Spicuzza at (414) 224-2324 or mary.spicuzza@jrn.com. Follow her on Twitter at @MSpicuzzaMJS.