North Carolina House districts held by vulnerable Republicans are the target of a new six-figure ad campaign launching Tuesday by the left-wing group Unlocking America’s Future, underscoring the power the North Carolina General Assembly holds in state and national political affairs.

The digital ads focus on House Bill 750, which prohibits state entities from creating or using environmental, social, and governance (ESG) criteria or economically targeted investment requirements when making employment decisions. After Gov. Roy Cooper, a Democrat, vetoed the bill, the Republican supermajorities voted to override it along party lines. 

Though all Republicans and five House Democrats backed the legislation in 2023, the attack ad will specifically target three key swing districts:

  • Reps. Bill Ward, R-Camden, District 5
  • Allen Chesser, R-Nash, District 25
  • Ken Fontenot, R-Wilson, District 24

All are defending their seats in very tight races.

Ward’s District 5 is considered a toss-up district according to the Civitas Partisan Index. The districts of incumbents Fontenot and Chesser, however, favor Democrats by two points.

“Those eastern North Carolina House districts would be on anyone’s short list of seats for Democrats to try to pick up,” said Andy Jackson, Director of the Civitas Center for Public Integrity.

The ad points to their opposition to ESG policies and calls the lawmakers greedy. In theory, ESG criteria serve as a framework for investors to evaluate a company’s ethical and sustainable practices, as to make more conscious investment decisions. In practice, the marking non-financial scores in areas such as environmental sustainability initiatives, or anti-racist policies, has drawn criticism as forming financial barriers in support of specific political agendas.

Since launching in December 2023, Unlocking America’s Future (UAF), the group behind the campaign, has disseminated attack ads against Republicans in multiple states, including Arizona, South Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Texas.

According to InfluceWatch, UAF is a left-wing advocacy firm that supports leftist environmental causes. Its investments in state legislative races reveal the emphasis being placed on blocking North Carolina Republicans from retaining a supermajority, even nationwide.

According to Axios, the group also receives administrative help from Climate Power, which is based in Washington, DC.

SEE ALSO: Can NC Republicans maintain a supermajority in the 2025 session?

“While eastern North Carolina has been moving towards Republicans, there are still Democratic strongholds there, especially in the so-called “black belt” counties in the northern coastal plain,” Jackson added. “The problem for Democrats is that all three Republican incumbents demonstrated their strength by winning in those districts two years ago.”

As Jackson previously explained, House Republicans must defend several incumbents in Democratic-leaning seats, such as those mentioned above, to keep the supermajority in 2025.

The ad comes as Congresswoman Virginia Foxx, R-05, blasted ESG policies in Washington, DC, on Tuesday, calling it an “ideological cancer buoyed by assets managers, banks, and financial institutions that kneel at the alter of anti-capitalism.”

She concluded that ESG is “woke garbage” that “needs to be out to pasture and left to die.”