Senate Republicans’ campaign committee is attacking Sen. Mark Kelly of Arizona in a new Spanish-language television ad that casts the Democrat as blind to the needs of his Hispanic constituents.
Mr. Kelly is viewed as vulnerable in the 2022 midterm elections, and the fate of his re-election bid will go a long way in determining whether Republicans can flip control of the upper chamber.
“When he was elected, Mark Kelly said he would work for us, but what has he accomplished?” the narrator in the National Republican Senatorial Committee advertisement says. “A crisis at the border, more insecurity in our communities, higher prices for everything, and now he wants to take away our rights as parents over our children’s education.”
The narrator adds: “Many Hispanics are paying for the failures of Mark Kelly.”
The GOP is betting that if it can make inroads with Hispanic voters in Arizona next year, then it will narrow Mr. Kelly’s path to victory.
The television ad is running in the Phoenix and Tucson media markets. The NRSC targeted Mr. Kelly in Spanish-language radio ads last month.
State Attorney General Mark Brnovich, retired Air Force Maj. Gen. Michael McGuire, and businessmen Blake Masters and Jim Lamon are running for the Republican nomination and the chance to take on Mr. Kelly in the general election.
The latest poll from OH Predictive Insights shows Mr. Kelly leading in hypothetical head-to-head matchups against all four of the Republicans.
Last year, President Biden became the first Democrat to carry Arizona in a presidential election since Bill Clinton won the state in 1996.
Democratic Sen. Kyrsten Sinema won her seat there in the 2018 election, and Mr. Kelly won the special election last year to fill out the remaining term of the late Republican Sen. John McCain.
Mr. Kelly defeated Republican Sen. Martha McSally by a 51%-49% margin. He is now running for a full six-year term.
Mr. Kelly’s office did not respond to a request for comment.
• Seth McLaughlin can be reached at smclaughlin@washingtontimes.com.
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