No one can accuse Todd Rokita of being timid.
The Indiana Republican was the first candidate to really throw elbows in the Senate primary. Now he is the first to throw a punch. Literally. In a new ad, Rokita laces up boxing gloves and punches his opponents in the face to demonstrate, of all things, his tax cutting prowess.
Wearing a dark blue shirt, pleated khakis, and bright red boxing gloves, Rokita tells the camera in his fourth television ad just 15 days before primary day that “real conservatives fight for tax cuts.”
“Mike Braun? He voted for 45 tax hikes. That is why they call him ‘tax Hike Mike,’” Rokita says before walloping the likeness of the Indiana businessman. “Luke Messer?” Rokita continues, popping a roly-poly boxing bag with that congressman’s face on it, “He voted to hike our property taxes. No wonder Luke Messer sold his house in Indiana and moved to D.C., just like Evan Bayh.”
It is a 30-second television spot. It was first obtained by the Washington Examiner. And it perfectly encapsulates the Rokita campaign.
While Messer has tried to stay positive and Braun has tried to paint his opponents as bickering politicians, Rokita has gone full “Raging Bull.” If the key to winning in 2018 is to act like President Trump in 2016, as NRSC Chairman Sen. Cory Gardner, R-Colo., recently told the Washington Examiner, then Rokita is in good shape.
“The people want you to fight,” Gardner said. “The people want you to fight,” he says repeating for emphasis. “Look at them every time I go home. People talk about Trump, they say ‘at least he’s fighting.’”
Rokita has taken that advice to heart.
