Immigrant-rights group prepared to go for ‘jugular’ in midterm attack ads

The head of an immigrant-rights group said Thursday the chilling “American Nightmare” advertisement showing a Confederate-flag toting truck stalking young minority children that his group ran in Virginia’s gubernatorial race last year could serve as a blueprint for television spots ahead of the midterm elections.

Cristobal J. Alex, president of the Latino Victory Fund told grassroots activists at the Netroots Nation gathering in New Orleans the attack ad against Republican Ed Gillespie helped drive out Latino and other voters for Democrat Ralph Northam that were sick of the GOP demagoguing minorities.

“There was a lot of concern initially from you know the old school Democratic operative consultant type who said, ’Oh my goodness it is going to turn out the other side,’” Mr. Alex said. “That didn’t materialize.”

Mr. Alex said his group was tired of the Latino community getting scapegoated and doing nothing about it — including in Virginia where Mr. Gillespie ran anti-MS-13 ads that his group described as “misleading ads conflating immigration and gang violence.”

“So we decided to go for the jugular here with a very powerful ad that ended up exploding on social media,” he said, adding that the blowback from The White House and conservative talking heads accelerated the impact of the ad.

“Ultimately it was the right thing to do,” he said. “It worked, we are proud of it. We stand by it. We will do it when we need to do it.”

The approach drew the attention of an unnamed U.S. senator who has asked him to run similar ads in his state this year.

“He said last year your ad was ahead of its time,” he said. “We need to fight fire with fire.”

The group’s ad showed a pickup truck with a Confederate flag and a Gillespie bumper sticker chasing down Muslim, Latino and black children and called on voters to “reject the hate.”

“This all started because we have a racist, rapist, corrupt president in The White House,” Mr. Alex said. “So this is a GOP that is heartless and lacks any shame and we have to remind folks of that.”