A Republican political action committee is targeting Minnesota Democrats with a digital ad buy Tuesday ahead of Hillary Clinton’s counterterrorism speech in Minneapolis Tuesday afternoon.
America Rising, a PAC founded by Mitt Romney campaign alum, promoted on social media an attack ad released last week called “Leading from Behind.”
The video, which ties Clinton’s foreign policy to the unpopular Obama administration strategy for fighting the Islamic State, will target Democrats in the Minneapolis-St. Paul region and Democratic-leaning students at the University of Minnesota, playing automatically when targeted users open their Facebook pages.
The ad buy will also target YouTube users in the area who have previously watched America Rising videos. Viewers who click the attack ad on either website will be routed to the PAC’s “Defeat Hillary” petition, which collects the contact information of supporters who wish to sign up with the group.
“Without question, President Obama’s failure to lead the fight against ISIS has hurt America’s global standing, and shoulder to shoulder with him every step of the way has been Secretary Clinton,” said Jeff Bechdel, spokesman for America Rising. “The Obama-Clinton foreign policy agenda is a weak, feckless prescription for a growing threat.”
Republican strategists and candidates alike have stepped up attempts to draw parallels between President Obama and Clinton on their plans to combat the Islamic State as the threat of homegrown terror rises in importance to voters.
Clinton, on the other hand, has worked to distance herself from her former boss, striking a more hawkish tone on the Islamic State without calling on the U.S. to lead a major military engagement in the region.
