Washington, DC – A new ad from the Congressional Leadership Fund, the largest superPAC for House Republicans tied to GOP leadership, attacks Texas Democratic candidate Michelle Vallejo (TX-15) using a barrage of nativist lies and images associated with “open borders” and fentanyl and associating Michelle Vallejo with “cartel chaos.” Vallejo is running against Monica De La Cruz (TX-15) – one of the Texas House Republican candidates featured in the America’s Voice bilingual, “Show Me Your Friends” campaign.
Leading fact checking site PolitiFact this week covered the lies that are front and center in the new anti-Vallejo ad. As PolitiFact noted, “As the November midterm elections near, political candidates and TV ads are pushing inaccurate and misleading claims about immigration,” and subsequently fact checked a host of messaging assertions that are featured by CLF. PolitiFact finds that despite Republican assertions: “The southern border is not open;” “There is no invasion at the southern border;” and “Most fentanyl entering the U.S is not being smuggled by immigrants illegally crossing the border.”
As covered in the recent America’s Voice political message tracking report, the new Congressional Leadership Fund ad fits neatly in their ongoing reliance on nativism and stoking fear and misinformation this cycle, including spreading lies about an ongoing “invasion” at our southern border. The report examines a catalog of nearly 4,000 pieces of political communication for this cycle up until August 2022, finding over:
- Over 2,130 unique ads and 400 campaign emails that use nativist dog-whistles
- Over 360 unique ads that fear-monger about Democrats’ alleged “open border” policies
- Over 330 ads that deploy dog-whistles around drugs and immigration
- Over 130 ads that employ the white nationalist “invasion” rhetoric
According to Vanessa Cárdenas, Deputy Director of America’s Voice: “Voters in South Texas deserve better than fear-mongering and misinformation and should know that the same organization running these latest ads are openly peddling white nationalist conspiracies in other ads across the country. We need solutions on immigration reform and the opioid crisis, not rampant misinformation and scare tactics.”
For TX-15 voters seeking real information and answers about immigration and the border, below are several key questions relevant to the Vallejo and De La Cruz race that the GOP candidate has yet to answer:
- In one of her television ads, Monica De La Cruz, the Republican candidate for Texas’ 15th U.S. Congressional District, says that she wants to “finish what Trump started.”
- On immigration and border issues, what does this vision of finishing what Trump started detail – family separation, eliminating asylum, deporting Dreamers?
- The Congressional Leadership Fund is associated with House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), who has pledged no amnesty under a potential Republican Congress.
- Does De La Cruz agree with this pledge? Would she support efforts to provide permanent legal status for Dreamers if the Texas-led challenge to the DACA program winds down or ends the program?
- House leadership has adopted the white nationalist lie that asylum seekers and refugees constitute an “invasion,” the same lie peddled by the gunman who murdered 23 people in El Paso, Texas.
- Does Monica De La Cruz believe this lie? If she doesn’t, will she repudiate the support of Elise Stefanik, whose E-PAC donated $10,000 to her campaign or that of the CLF, who has also run “invasion” ads?
Read about the America’s Voice bilingual campaign, “Show Me Your Friends.” There’s a wise saying in Spanish, “Dime con quién andas y te diré quién eres” – show me your friends and I’ll show you who you are” – that is the inspiration for the campaign. Republican candidates along the border have refused to distance themselves or denounce Republicans’ dangerous extremism on immigration and the border, including the “invasion” and “white replacement” rhetoric and conspiracy theories.
- Watch an explainer video about the campaign HERE.
- Watch individual videos focused on each of the GOP candidates HERE.
