You might remember Elbert Guillory from this speech last year. Well, he’s back. This time, with a hard-hitting ad urging North Carolina blacks to “send Kay Hagan home.”
The purpose is to encourage “the 95 percent of black voters who carried Hagan to victory in 2008 to look at the facts and strongly consider whether another four years of Hagan is consistent with their economic needs and cultural values,” according to a press release.
“Black people are just being used by limousine liberals who have become our new overseers,” Guillory says in the spot. “We’ve only traded one plantation for another. You are not Kay Hagan’s cause — and you’re certainly not her charity.”
“You are just a vote,” he continues. “She has stepped off your backs to fame and fortune, and left you behind on food stamps, deprived of the American dream.”
Will it work? That remains to be seen. But the strategy makes perfect sense. As the New York Times recently reported, “In North Carolina, where Senator Kay Hagan, a Democrat, is fighting to retain her seat, party field operatives have deputized more than 150 “captains” — the owners of black barbershops, hair salons and other small businesses — to help register voters. Nearly 30,000 African-Americans have registered since January.”
Torin Kelly, a spokesperson for Our America, which is responsible for the ad, said in a statement: “Hagan is counting on African American voters to turnout in large numbers to again propel her to victory, but under her reign the unemployment rate of African Americans has risen to 17.3 percent, more than two and a half times that of whites, while Hagan’s own net worth has increased almost 40 percent since taking office. There is no denying that she has let down the black community on critical economic issues while choosing to instead focus on her own personal gain.”
Paid for by Our America PAC, I’m told the media buy starts tomorrow and will be targeted to the Charlotte market and will then move to Raleigh — which means it will run in the two largest cities in the state during the final week before Election Day. I have requested information regarding the size of the buy (how many points, etc.) and will update if/when I hear back.
Guillory, a Louisiana state senator, has cut a similar ad targeted at Sen. Mary Landrieu, which is sponsored by a different group.
WATCH: