CNN: Virginia House Democratic Caucus “Advertising Blitz” Exposes GOP Delegates for “Following the Leader” on Trump and Elon’s Job-Killing Agenda

First offered exclusively to POLITICO, the ad campaign is gaining additional national and local attention, with coverage from CNN and The Richmond Times-Dispatch. The ads expose 12 vulnerable GOP delegates for siding with Musk’s reckless workforce cuts and Trump’s attacks on Social Security, Medicaid, and Medicare.

As CNN’s Fredreka Schouten reports, the ads will test whether Musk “will prove a political liability for Republicans as he continues to take a leading role in chopping the federal workforce and shuttering parts of the government,” while The Richmond Times-Dispatch names Chesterfield seats held by Republican Dels. Carrie Coyner and Mark Earley as “competitive.”

With Republicans backing job losses and attacks on essential programs, Virginia Democrats are making their vulnerability a liability—holding them accountable, standing up for veterans and working families, and building momentum for November.

You can read the press highlights below:

CNN: Political advertising’s new rising star: Trump’s cost-cutter in chief Elon Musk

• The advertising blitz tests whether Musk – whom Forbes pegs as the world’s richest person – will prove a political liability for Republicans as he continues to take a leading role in chopping the federal workforce and shuttering parts of the government.
• Recent polling suggests that Musk is an unpopular messenger for the administration’s cost-cutting moves – particularly among the Democratic voters that the party needs to turn out in off-year elections in places such as Virginia. The […] state legislative contests are on the ballot in the Commonwealth this year, and elected officials there are grappling with the fallout of DOGE-driven cuts to the state’s sizable federal workforce.
• Fifty percent of respondents in a Marist/NPR/PBS national poll conducted in late February had an unfavorable view of Musk, compared to 39% who had a favorable opinion.
• A separate poll from Quinnipiac University found, overall, that 55% of voters think Musk has too much power in making decisions affecting the US.
• The poll also revealed a stark partisan divide: Among Democrats, 96% said Musk had too much power; only 16% of Republicans felt that way.
• Some Americans see the tech CEO “as the face of somebody who fired their uncle or shifted their cousin’s factory overseas,” said Jesse Ferguson, a Democratic strategist. “Musk is now the image of the incredibly wealthy billionaires who have a major role in the Trump administration.”
• In Virginia […] Democrats are hoping their Musk-focused advertising will sway voters as residents start to feel the impact of his efforts to pare down the federal workforce.
• Musk “is taking a chainsaw to their lives and livelihoods, and decades of public service in many cases,” said state Delegate Dan Helmer, who chairs campaign efforts for Virginia’s House Democratic caucus and represents an outer suburb of the nation’s capital.
• Last year, Virginia was home to more than 144,000 federal civilian workers, according to a tally by the Congressional Research Service.
• Democrats, who currently control 51 seats in the state House of Delegates to Republicans’ 49, are seeking to tie Musk to vulnerable Republican incumbents. The Democrats’ targets include 12 GOP state lawmakers, eight of whom serve in districts that Kamala Harris, the 2024 Democratic presidential nominee, prevailed in last year, Helmer said.

POLITICO: Virginia Dems’ new ad campaign weaponizes Musk

• Virginia Democrats are launching an opening salvo in their quest to make Elon Musk a political liability for Republicans trying to regain ground in the House of Delegates this year.
• The world’s richest man takes on a starring role in a new digital and streaming ad campaign from the Virginia House Democratic Caucus. Musk’s image appears five times in the 30-second ad that paints a chaotic picture of President Donald Trump’s first weeks in office, saying an endangered social safety net is “so billionaires can reap the benefits.”
• Virginia Republicans, the spots say, are “following the leader” as a picture of Trump and Musk flashes across the screen, “cutting taxes for them. Leaving us to foot the bill.”
• It’s a strategy Democrats telegraphed earlier this month as Musk began to enact his plans to pare down the federal government. Now they’re putting money behind it. The buy […] is just the start of a larger campaign to weaponize Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency against the GOP.
• Virginia’s off-year elections are always a test case for voters’ reactions to a new administration. That’s more true than ever in 2025. Tens of thousands of federal workers and contractors live in Virginia. Some have already lost their jobs, and those who haven’t know that unemployment could be imminent.
• Democrats, who hold a narrow majority in the Virginia House of Delegates, have leaned heavily into DOGE and needled Republicans, saying they are not standing up for Virginians.
• “Virginia House Republicans are too busy taking orders from Donald Trump and his billionaire handler Elon Musk to fight for the people they were elected to serve,” said Virginia state Del. Dan Helmer, who chairs Democrats’ campaign caucus.
• The spots will run in 12 GOP-held Virginia House districts, largely in the suburbs and exurbs of Northern Virginia, Richmond and Hampton Roads area. The incumbents receiving the attacks ads: Dels. Paul Milde, David Owen, Bobby Orrock, Geary Higgins, Ian Lovejoy, Kim Taylor, Mark Earley Jr., Carrie Coyner, Chad Green, Amanda Batten, Chris Obenshain and A.C. Cordoza.
• Those districts offer a road map of where Democrats think they can cut into Republicans’ margins in Virginia. The elections will shed light on whether DOGE cuts upset moderates and independents who voted for Trump and whether his actions reverberate beyond just the northern portion of the state. Democrats already control the state delegate districts in Arlington and Fairfax, where many federal employees live.
• Early Democratic polling has suggested that Musk is unpopular with voters in key congressional districts. House Democrats have focused on the threat DOGE could pose to Social Security, Medicaid and Medicare — three popular programs. They believe voters will punish Republicans if Trump scales back any of them.
• Virginia Democrats are making the same bet.

Richmond Times–Dispatch: Democrats targeting 2 Chesterfield House seats

• Democrats have their eyes on two Chesterfield County House seats held by Republican Dels. Carrie Coyner and Mark Earley.
• Coyner’s House District 75, where she won with 53% of the vote in 2023, is competitive. It includes the city of Hopewell and parts of Chesterfield and Prince George counties.
• Earley’s House District 73, which covers the western part of Chesterfield, leans Republican, but Vice President Kamala Harris won the district by a small margin last year in a contest with a large presidential year turnout.
• The Virginia House Democratic Caucus has launched a statewide advertising campaign targeting what it calls “12 of the most vulnerable House Republicans” — including Coyner and Earley.
• The five-figure ad buy across YouTube and streaming platforms accuses Coyner and Earley of following President Donald Trump’s push to cut taxes for billionaires while regular Virginians foot the bill.