Conservatives launch blatantly misleading ads about Ohio Democrats

The conservative nonprofit American Action Network (AAN) has launched a series of false ads against Democrats in Ohio, including Reps. Emilia Sykes (D) and Marcy Kaptur (D).

The ad blitz is focused on attacking Democratic candidates on health care issues, and the ads use misleading language to persuade viewers on the politicians’ stance. In an ad against Sykes, the woman on-screen attacks Sykes for voting to defund Medicare, even though she voted against President Donald Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill, which makes severe Medicaid cuts.

Video via American Action Network

The bill, which was signed into law by Trump on July 4, is expected to kick at least 10.3 million people off of their health insurance over the next decade, slash Medicaid and Medicare by hundreds of billions of dollars and shut down hospitals across the nation.

“Medicaid cuts would place significant financial pressure on hospitals in rural states, where many hospitals are already at risk of closure. In more than half of states, reductions in Medicaid funding for rural hospitals would exceed 20%,” according to the National Rural Health Association.

After the first version of the bill passed in the House of Representatives, Sykes’ likely 2026 opponent Kevin Coughlin argued that the legislation was a win, but he said it did not cut social safety net programs enough. The bill passed in both chambers of Congress, with all “yes” votes coming from Republicans.

A similar ad against Kaptur was launched in May, and both rely on the claim that Sykes and Kaptur voted against funding social programs when voted “no” on a continuing resolution earlier this year. This claim was debunked by Action News 13 in Toledo, as they pointed out the continuing resolution had nothing to do with funding social programs like Medicare and Social Security.