The Republican State Leadership Committee (RSLC) PAC is launching an ad in several battleground states hitting Democrats for being “soft on crime,” according to a press release obtained by the Daily Caller News Foundation.
The ad, which will likely begin airing near the end of the week in Michigan, Minnesota, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, is part of a broader six-figure “Republican Roadmap” campaign run that is aimed at presenting Republicans as the party of law and order to swing state voters, an RSLC spokesperson told the DCNF. RSLC’s “Soft-on-Crime” ad accuses Democrats of pushing policies like defunding the police and ending cash bail, while also highlighting legislative actions taken by Republicans to promote public safety.
“American families are not only struggling as they deal with high prices at the grocery store or the gas pump, but are also increasingly feeling unsafe in their communities,” RSLC President Dee Duncan said in a press release obtained by the DCNF. “While Joe Biden is off the ballot, Kamala Harris and Tim Walz will have to answer for the Biden-Harris agenda that has gone soft-on-crime and created this chaos, especially thanks to their open border policies. State Republicans will continue to fight for additional funding for our police and to secure the border to prevent criminal activity as we look to change course and make our cities and communities safe once again.” (RELATED: Republicans Outpace Dems In Fundraising As Control Of Key Legislatures Hangs In Balance)
The ad referenced Jose Ibarra, a 26-year-old Venezuelan national who a grand jury indicted over the killing of 22-year-old student Laken Riley in Athens, Georgia. The Republican-led House of Representatives passed the “Laken Riley Act” in March that, if passed, would require the federal government to detain foreign nationals who commit “burglary, theft, larceny or [a] shoplifting offense.”
The act was placed on the Senate Legislative Calendar in March and has not been advanced since, according to congressional records.
The ad also referenced Victor Antonio Martinez-Hernandez, an illegal immigrant accused of raping and murdering a mother of five from Maryland, as well as a pair of illegal Venezuelan migrants charged with strangling a 12-year-old girl to death.
“Joe Biden might be off the ballot, but his soft on crime policies remain in the states,” the ad’s narrator said. “The reckless agenda coming from Democrats up and down the ballot have led to crime waves across the country.”
The ad also shows images of headlines that tie Vice President Kamala Harris to proposals like defunding the police.
“The status quo has been more police equals more safety,” Harris said in an interview clipped in the ad. “That’s just wrong.”
Michigan’s State Senate has a 20 to 18 Democratic majority and the Michigan House has a 56 to 54 Democratic majority, making the chambers attractive targets for Republicans, according to Ballotpedia. Chambers in Arizona, New Hampshire, Minnesota and Pennsylvania have similarly slim majorities, paving the way for flips in both directions.
“Our Republican Roadmap series is our playbook that we will continue to embrace to ensure more state Republicans are elected this November to reclaim and hold majorities in the states to combat the Democrats’ soft-on-crime agenda,” Duncan said in the press release.
Both the RSLC and its liberal counterpart, the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee, have raised tens of millions of dollars to pour into state-level elections in November.
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