Two Republican Senate candidates in Ohio released advertisements on Tuesday that showed the rivals tackling race from defensive crouches.
Author J.D. Vance launched his campaign’s first television ad, opening by asking viewers, “Are you a racist? Do you hate Mexicans?”
“The media calls us racists for wanting to build Trump’s wall,” Vance said in the ad. “They censor us, but it doesn’t change the truth. Joe Biden’s open border is killing Ohioans with more illegal drugs and more Democrat voters pouring into this country.”
Vance said an open border permits the entry of drugs into the United States, and he pointed to his mother’s battle with addiction, which he chronicled in his bestselling book Hillbilly Elegy.
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Are you a racist? pic.twitter.com/Fdknxld39i
— J.D. Vance (@JDVance1) April 5, 2022
“Whatever they call us, we will put America first,” Vance said in the ad.
The Vance campaign said the ad was filmed on the street where the candidate grew up in Middletown, Ohio.
“Joe Biden’s border policies are killing people all across the state of Ohio, and instead of fixing the problem, he and his allies are trying to silence those of us pushing for a secure border,” Vance said in a statement about the ad. “It’s time to reject the Democrats’ labels and put our citizens first.”
Josh Mandel, a former state treasurer and an early front-runner in the race, released an ad Tuesday that opens with an Ohio resident calling critical race theory “crap.”
Martin Luther King marched right here so skin color wouldn’t matter. pic.twitter.com/kVSU4zKdM1
— Josh Mandel (@JoshMandelOhio) April 5, 2022
The concept of critical race theory has sparked a culture war despite a lack of clarity on its very definition. Some argue the theory is an educational approach that erases the accomplishments of the U.S. and the positive aspects of its history by portraying the nation as fundamentally flawed due to its original sins, including racism and slavery. Others argue the theory is an educational approach limited in scope to graduate-level academic institutions, is not used in grade schools, and that claims to the contrary are unfounded.
The Mandel ad features the candidate arguing that Martin Luther King Jr. once marched in Ohio “so skin color wouldn’t matter.”
“There’s nothing racist about stopping critical race theory,” Mandel said in the ad, filmed at the Edmund Pettus Bridge, site of the March 7, 1965, “Bloody Sunday” episode, when police attacked civil rights demonstrators with horses, billy clubs, and tear gas.
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The crowded and contentious primary is entering its final weeks, with voters scheduled to go to the polls on May 3. The seat is open because GOP Sen. Rob Portman is retiring after 12 years. In recent weeks, businessman Mike Gibbons has climbed the polls, with most showing either him or Mandel in the lead.
