An activist group will launch a half-million dollar ad buy Sunday to remind President-elect Donald Trump that the GOP's conservative base expects him to keep his promise to nominate conservative Supreme Court justices.
"The American people want justices that are strong and independent to protect our Constitution and make sure its meaning is preserved," a narrator says in one of the spots the Judicial Crisis Network is airing in Washington, D.C., South Florida, and New York, reports The Washington Post. "And because of Donald Trump, the next Supreme Court will do just that."
The advertising also includes Trump's remarks from the final presidential debate, where he commented that it's "so imperative that we have the right justices," and a plea to viewers to thank Trump for his pledge to fill the seat of the late Justice Antonin Scalia.
About one in four voters said they made their choice based on potential Supreme Court picks, according to exit polling conducted by Edison Research, with 56 percent of those voters backing Trump, compared to 41 percent for Democratic rival Hillary Clinton.
Trump earlier this year released two lists of potential nominees, and said in September that he'll use only the names on that list when making his decision.
The JCN has also aired advertising thanking Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, for blocking President Barack Obama's choice, Merrick Garland, from the court. Further, just after Scalia died, the JCN bought $5 million in ad spots about the vacant seat.
“[M]any general election voters cast their votes for Trump because they believed his promise that he will nominate Supreme Court justices who will fairly apply the law and not make it up, or impose a personal or political agenda from the bench,” Carrie Severino, the group’s chief counsel and policy director, said in a statement.
“The President-elect promised to make America great again — one of the best ways to do that is to make good on his promise to select judges who will carry on the legacy of the late Justice Antonin Scalia, judges who will honor and respect the Constitution.”