The main PAC for Republican state attorneys general announced Tuesday it is launching a $7 million advertising campaign to boost candidates in 13 states, including Brenna Bird in Iowa. The Republican Attorneys General Association (RAGA) said in a news release its “aggressive early offensive barrage” is “phase one of RAGA’s fall campaign and begins immediately with a mix of digital and television advertising.”
“RAGA will spend more this year politically than in any year in its 27-year history, and the stakes have never been higher,” Adam Piper, RAGA’s executive director, said.
In addition to Iowa, RAGA’s ad campaigns are targeting state attorney general races in Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Kansas, Ohio, Minnesota, Michigan, Nevada, New York, Texas and Wisconsin.
“RAGA enters the final 70 days of the campaign in a strong financial position and with an opportunity to play offense across a national map,” the PAC said.
The attorney general’s office is on the ballot in 30 states this year. RAGA did not explain in its news release how it selected Iowa or any of the other states for its “aggressive early offensive barrage,” but it is worth noting that Brenna Bird serves on RAGA’s executive committee.
The new ad buys aren’t the only support RAGA has given Bird, who is running for her second term as Iowa AG. According to campaign finance documents filed with the Iowa Ethics and Campaign Disclosure Board (IECDB), almost three-quarters of the money raised by Bird’s reelection campaign has come from the Washington D.C.-based RAGA Action Fund.
RAGA Action Fund is a RAGA super PAC. Super PACs came into existence following the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2010 Citizens United decision that reversed almost a century of legal precedent, gutting the country’s existing campaign finance regulation structure. Super PACs operate with even fewer restrictions than ordinary PACs, and can raise and spend unlimited amounts of money. Federal law prohibits super PACs from contributing directly to candidates for federal office, but Bird is running for a state office and Iowa has no prohibition on contributions.
According to the finance statements Bird has submitted to IECDB, between Jan. 1, 2025 and July 20, 2026, Bird raised $6,888,051.66 for her reelection campaign. RAGA Action Fund contributed $5,025,000 of that total. That amounts to 73 percent of all the money Bird had raised, as of the end of this year’s last reporting period.
It’s standard practice for the national organizations of the two major political parties to contribute to state-level candidates. A super PAC of the Democratic Attorney Generals Association, DAGA Individual Fund, has contributed to Nate Willems, the Democrat challenging Bird in the November election. DAGA Individual Fund donated $10,000 to Willems’ campaign on May 14, and $1.5 million on July 7. The combined total of $1.51 million represents 47 percent of the $3,185,252.02 Willems had raised as of July 20.
According to Willems’ filings, DAGA Individual Fund has also provided his campaign in-kind contributions worth $31,000, mostly for polling. Another PAC, DAGA Victory Fund, provided the Willems campaign with an in-kind contribution valued at $11,530 in 2025.
While the DAGA contributions to Willems are pretty standard for a national party supporting a state-level candidate, Bird’s reliance on RAGA Action Fund to pay for her campaign isn’t. It’s extraordinary for an incumbent to receive almost two-thirds of their campaign fund from a single out-of-state source.
RAGA Action Fund donated $1 million to Bird on Dec. 31, 2025. It gave her another $1.425 million on May 13 this year, followed by $1.1 million on May 26 and $1.5 million on July 13. The super PAC has also provided Bird’s campaign with in-kind contributions worth $43,500 during this election cycle.
In RAGA’s news release on Tuesday, Piper awkwardly expressed his confidence in his PAC’s candidates by saying, “We have great problems in this political environment with a dozen races within the margin of error and a better message. RAGA is going on offense now with better candidates, better messaging, and the resources to remind voters early and often that fighting fraud and all forms of crime is on the ballot this November.”
There’s been little public polling in the Iowa Attorney General’s race, but a poll published in May by a major Democratic polling firm found Willems 2 percentage points behind Bird. The polls error margin was +/-4 percent.
