New Hampshire’s Republican Sen. Kelly Ayotte released a new ad on Tuesday touting her work to combat New England’s heroin epidemic, an increasingly salient issue among Granite State voters this cycle.
The new 60-second ad, titled “Our Family,” features Pam and Doug Griffin, the parents of a young New Hampshire resident who died of a drug overdose. The ad hits the airwaves during “Prescription Opioid and Heroin Epidemic Awareness Week,” designated by President Obama last Friday.
“Our family’s tragedy could happen to any family,” the Griffins say in the ad. “We knew we had to save other families from losing their children. Kelly reached out to us. She came to my family to learn more. She listened to what we had to say, who we were — she cared about us… She didn’t know us.”
The ad seeks to remind New Hampshire voters that Ayotte co-authored the 2016 Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act, which Obama signed into law in July. The legislation authorizes the Attorney General and Health and Human Services secretary to award new grants focused on addressing the opioid epidemic and encourages the review of current treatment methods, including using prescription drugs to treat heroin dependence.
Ayotte’s campaign plans to run the ad on New Hampshire broadcast and Boston cable networks as part of the $7 million it has reserved in television advertising through Election Day.
The incumbent Republican senator is polling 1.8 percentage points ahead of her Democratic challenger, New Hampshire Gov. Maggie Hassan, in the RealClearPolitics average of state-level polls.
