Jeffrey Epstein no longer dominates headlines like he did for much of last year, but the deceased sex offender is still showing up everywhere in Democratic attack ads.
Democrats are pummeling every Republican senator in a competitive race who initially opposed legislation to release federal records on Epstein, a onetime friend of President Donald Trump who killed himself in jail in 2019 after being charged with sex trafficking. They are also targeting House Republicans in Texas, Pennsylvania, Iowa and Virginia. Some of the ads accuse Republicans of taking campaign contributions from wealthy donors who worked or socialized with Epstein.
Democrats say the scandal reinforces broader themes about corruption and fairness, playing into a storyline that rich people like Epstein get away with crimes while regular people struggle to make ends meet. In total, Democrats have spent $53 million on ads mentioning Epstein in competitive races, compared with $3 million from Republicans, according to AdImpact. The campaign has pushed some Republicans to respond in personal terms.
“This week I had to explain to my boys, ‘No, Mom does not protect pedophiles,’” Rep. Ashley Hinson (R-Iowa), who is running for Senate, said in a direct-to-camera ad after Democrats spent $8.5 million on ads claiming her donors appear in the Epstein files. Being named in the files does not establish wrongdoing, and few people mentioned have been accused of any.
The attacks come as voters are particularly focused on whose interests elected officials serve. Corruption topped voter concerns in a Fox News poll this month, beating even inflation and gas prices. In a Quinnipiac University survey from June, 38 percent said the Epstein investigation was important in deciding their vote, tied with data centers and President Donald Trump.
“I don’t work for the Epstein class, the selfish people that are selling us out,” Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D-Ohio), running in a right-leaning district, said in an ad showcasing her vote to release the Epstein files. “I won’t let it go until they go to prison.”
Republicans view the attacks as a suppression tactic aimed at weakening support or discouraging their voters from showing up to the polls. They said the message could especially target young men or infrequent voters who generally distrust politicians, with Trump as the rare exception.
Releasing records of the Epstein investigation became a rallying cry among Trump supporters during the 2024 campaign. As president, Trump resisted the disclosure for months and urged Republicans to move on. Once he relented, Congress approved the disclosure almost unanimously.
The millions of records published by the Justice Department include many references to Trump, who was friends with Epstein until about 2004. Last year Trump said he objected to Epstein hiring young women from his spa.
The Epstein files have mobilized hecklers and protesters who recently interrupted Trump events in Macungie, Pennsylvania, and Youngstown, Ohio, as well as an event featuring Vice President JD Vance in Hendersonville, North Carolina. Protesters frequently disrupted Trump events in the 2016 campaign but were rare in intervening years.
A pair of anti-Trump nonprofits organized a bookmobile and touring exhibit of physical copies of the Epstein files traveling through midterm battlegrounds. An exhibit opening in Detroit on Wednesday featured Epstein survivors alongside Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed of Michigan, Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Connecticut) and Rep. Maxwell Frost (D-Florida).
“An America where something like this to happen is on the line,” El-Sayed said of the stakes of the election. “The notion that the powerful will have to be held accountable, that is on the line.”
Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska) has tried to flip the script on Democratic challenger Mary Peltola, accusing her of taking money from “Epstein associates,” referring to donors who took trips or had meals with him. The Peltola campaign said the contributions were from people only incidentally mentioned in the files or went to her past congressional campaigns before the Epstein files became public; it donated to charity contributions from a couple who flew on Epstein’s plane.
“I have spent my career defending survivors of domestic violence, of sexual assault, and in this case, I voted to release the Epstein files and protect the victims,” Sullivan said in an Oct. 15 debate. “She has been running this ad nonstop.”
AdImpact data shows Democrats have spent $5.2 million attacking Sen. Jon Husted (R-Ohio) for taking campaign contributions from Epstein associates such as billionaire Les Wexner, who hired Epstein as his financial manager. Wexner has denied knowledge of Epstein’s crimes.
More than a quarter of Democrats’ spending in the toss-up Kansas Senate race has gone to ads attacking incumbent Roger Marshall for initially voting against releasing the Epstein files. Marshall at the time said the files were “not my focus” and called the measure a “political stunt.”
The brother of Virginia Giuffre, a prominent Epstein victim who died by suicide in 2025, recorded an ad for the House Democrats’ campaign arm criticizing Rep. Jeff Crank (R-Colorado) for declining to meet with him and his wife. A Crank spokesman said his opponent, Jessica Killin, was “preying on a grieving family.”
Crank’s campaign aired its own ads highlighting his eventual vote to release the Epstein files and featuring a friend who asked Crank and his wife to be her daughter’s legal guardian.
Some attacks invoke Epstein in cases with no connection to him. In the Texas Senate race, Democrat James Talarico accused his opponent, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, of offering an “Epstein-style sweetheart deal for a well-connected child predator.”
The attack refers to a proposed plea deal that would have required a single day in jail, which Paxton’s office offered to a Waco attorney accused of child sex abuse. Prosecutors said they chose a plea deal over a retrial because the victim didn’t want to testify. Paxton defended himself by saying the man was sentenced to 60 days; he served 29.
“When did holding sexual abusers accountable become controversial?” Talarico said when the Epstein files exhibit was in Dallas coinciding with the GOP midterm convention in September. “I am tired of seeing powerful people cover up abuse. I think we’re all tired of it.”
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