EXCLUSIVE — Elon Musk is the star of House Majority Forward’s new billboard attack ad campaign across six vulnerable Republican districts as Democrats argue Musk is an unelected billionaire who is a danger to Medicaid.
The House Democrats’ super PAC is launching the billboards in the six vulnerable GOP districts of Reps. Gabe Evans (R-CO), Don Bacon (R-NE), Ryan Mackenzie (R-PA), Monica De La Cruz (R-TX), Jen Kiggans (R-VA), and Rob Wittman (R-VA). Each district is considered a competitive 2026 race, with Bacon, Evans, and Mackenzie ranked as “toss-ups” by the Cook Political Report.
The billboards, shared first with the Washington Examiner, are part of a larger ad campaign released earlier this month targeting Republicans over possible cuts to healthcare benefits for millions of people. The GOP’s budget reconciliation process calls for slashing $880 billion for programs under the Energy and Commerce Committee, making it all but assured the road to those cuts run straight through Medicaid.
Each billboard features a photo of Musk and the lawmaker, claiming the Republican “voted to cut Medicaid to give billionaires like him tax cuts.”
“Tell Gabe Evans to oppose Medicaid Cuts,” the billboard for Colorado’s 8th District reads.
“House Republicans are ripping health care away from millions of Americans—all to give more tax cuts to billionaires like Elon Musk. They have no shame,” HMF national press secretary Katarina Flicker said in a statement to the Washington Examiner.
Accusing Republicans of wanting to cut Medicaid and Social Security has been the rallying call for Democratic lawmakers and progressive opposition groups since President Donald Trump took office on Jan. 20. With the trifecta, Democrats virtually have little political power, and they have been working overtime to establish a strong message to regain the trust of voters heading into the 2026 midterm elections.
But Democrats are in a messaging rut. They have been ridiculed for social media posts and blasted as a party in “disarray, ” and controversial votes over issues such as the recent spending deal have proven the Democratic Party is divided.
At their annual issues conference in Leesburg, Virginia, last week, Democrats often spoke more of the danger Musk poses to the average voter than they did of Trump — especially in the context of Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, which has slashed government programs and laid off thousands of federal workers, including veterans, in its quest to eliminate “fraud, waste, and abuse.”
To combat this, Democrats are holding several town halls as part of a “Day of Action” on Tuesday to highlight possible Medicaid cuts in their districts. Several have also pledged to hold town halls in GOP-led districts after Rep. Richard Hudson (R-NC), the National Republican Congressional Committee chairman, warned Republicans to stop holding in-person town hall meetings following the backlash Republicans received over DOGE and the layoffs.
New Democrat Coalition Chairman Brad Schneider (D-IL) said Democrats are “100% right” in shining the spotlight on Musk but encouraged his colleagues to continue linking his actions back to Trump.
“He’s found extraordinary success trading new industries and accumulating massive wealth, and he’s now using that massive wealth to seize unprecedented power,” Schneider told the Washington Examiner. “It’s very dangerous, I think, because of who he is, how he operates, what he believes in the power he has. It’s important for us to talk about what he is doing.”
Rep. Sarah McBride (D-DE) told the Washington Examiner that the best way Democrats can push their message forward is to “show indignation on behalf of our constituents.” The freshman lawmaker added that Democrats have been breaking through on the subject of Medicaid in particular.
“When it is about the tangible harms that this administration is inflicting on veterans, on families, on patients, on renters and homeowners in our districts — that’s where our passion can come through and be heard and received by the public in the way we want it to be heard and received,” McBride said. “I don’t always think that that is the case when we are singularly focused on the president.”
GOP leadership has consistently brushed off Democrats’ claims that Medicaid is on the chopping block as “hysteria,” pointing to the language of the budget resolution and arguing the bill’s text does not specifically mention Medicaid, Social Security, or Medicare.
Bacon said in a statement to the Washington Examiner that there have been “no cuts” made to beneficiary programs and accused Democrats of wanting to let the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act expire — a policy Republicans seek to renew through reconciliation.
“Further, since 2016, Democrats have spent $52 million to defeat me, and they’ve poured it all down the drain,” the Nebraska congressman said. “They must be seething that I was rated the most effective representative out of 435 in successfully getting bills passed and signed into law. DC Democrats can spend another $52 million if they’d like; I will never raise taxes on the middle class or small businesses.”
Evans’s office also called the billboard “baseless lies,” echoing the importance of renewing the tax cuts to “protect the bottom 90% of individual taxpayers from higher taxes.”
“Democrats should do a little more research before they light money on fire with a billboard next time,” a spokeswoman for Evans told the Washington Examiner.
Democrats have routinely pointed to a Congressional Budget Office report that said the Energy and Commerce Committee only oversees a total of $581 billion in spending apart from Medicare and Medicaid. Even if it cuts everything it oversees besides those programs, the cuts would come $299 billion short of the $880 billion target, per the nonpartisan think tank overseeing the reconciliation process.
Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) and Trump have insisted that Medicaid benefits won’t be cut, but the speaker has repeatedly said Republicans are in line with DOGE’s commitment to root out fraud, waste, and abuse.
“Medicaid is hugely problematic because it has a lot of fraud, waste, and abuse,” Johnson told reporters at a recent news conference. “Everybody is committed to preserving Medicaid benefits for those who desperately need it and deserve it and qualify for it. What we’re talking about is rooting out the fraud, waste, and abuse.”
Last week, the speaker blasted Democrats for their repeated messaging on Medicaid during the fight over the stopgap spending bill, also known as a continuing resolution.
“They either have an issue with reading comprehension, or they are attempting to run one of the most shameful misinformation campaigns that we’ve ever seen in our lives. … This clean CR contains no poison pill riders, no policy riders there at all, no cuts to Medicare, Medicaid, or Social Security. Zero,” Johnson added.
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NRCC spokesman Mike Marinella called the billboards in a statement to the Washington Examiner a “disgusting, pathetic attempt” to distract voters, arguing they were placed because Democrats “can’t sell their failing message to voters across the country.”
“Democrats are running the same playbook of resorting to shameless fearmongering and outright lies because they have nothing else to offer the American people,” Marinella said.
The Washington Examiner reached out to Musk and the six targets of HMF’s billboards for comment.