Racially charged accusations continued to fly Monday in the Virginia governor's race after a Latino advocacy group released an ominous ad showing a truck with a Confederate flag and a Republican bumper sticker chasing down immigrant children in the streets.
The minute-long ad posted on YouTube by the Latino Victory Fund shows a white man chasing children through a neighborhood in a pickup truck with a bumper sticker for Republican Ed Gillespie on its tailgate, a tea party license plate and a Confederate flag billowing behind. Just before the frightened-looking children are about to be run down against a fence, the ad cuts to the children jolting up in their beds.
"Is this what Donald Trump and Ed Gillespie mean by the American dream?," the narrator says as a television screen shows images of white supremacists marching with torches in Charlottesville this summer to protest the city's decision to seek the removal of a statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee.
Republicans called on Democratic gubernatorial candidate Ralph Northam, who did not authorize the ad, to denounce the spot's nightmarish message, saying it went beyond other campaign ads linking Gillespie to white supremacists to suggest Gillespie supporters intend to commit racially motivated violence against children.
"This is not an attack on Ed Gillespie anymore," said Gillespie campaign manager Chris Leavitt. "This is an all out attack on the people of Virginia. This latest ad gives a clear indication of just what Ralph Northam and his national Democratic allies think of all of us, and it's sickening."
Latino Victory said the ad will air on D.C. and Richmond affiliates of Spanish-language channels Univision and Telemundo, as well as MSNBC and CNN. The group said the ad, which will air from Oct. 30 through the Nov. 7 election, is the "capstone" of its $400,000 push to mobilize Latino voters in Virginia.
The Northam campaign did not distance itself from the ad, suggesting its message is justified because of the way Gillespie has run his own campaign.
"Independent groups are denouncing Ed Gillespie because he has run the most divisive, fear mongering campaign in modern history," said Northam spokeswoman Ofirah Yheskel. "It is not shocking that communities of color are scared of what his Trump-like policy positions mean for them."
State Del. Sam Rasoul, a Roanoke Democrat who has pushed his party to avoid demonizing Trump supporters, said he disagrees with the group's ad, "but the fear is real."
"I would rather see groups use messages to inspire action, rather than fight fear with fear," said Rasoul, one of only a handful of Democrats left representing largely rural western Virginia in the statehouse.
Gillespie has repeatedly denounced the white supremacist displays in Charlottesville, but Democrats have criticized him for not directly condemning Trump's response to the violent Aug. 12 rally.
Gillespie's campaign ads have featured a relentless focus on accusing Northam of being soft on the threat of violence posed by the Latino gang MS-13, suggesting Northam's vote against a bill to ban hypothetical sanctuary cities would allow violent gang members to roam the streets. Democrats have blasted the ads as racial fear-mongering linking all immigrants to criminality, but Gillespie has defended the ads by saying that MS-13 violence mainly afflicts immigrant communities, not white neighborhoods.
Cristóbal J. Alex, the Latino Victory Fund's president, said Gillespie has "peddled dangerous stereotypes" about immigrants.
"We won't take it any longer," Alex said. "It's our moral imperative to stand up for Latino and immigrant families."
Gillespie's campaign has also played up threats to children. In ads criticizing Gov. Terry McAuliffe's push to restore civil rights to felons, Gillespie has highlighted the case of a convicted pedophile whose voting rights were restored shortly after authorities arrested him for having a massive stash of child pornography. The man quickly lost his voting rights again after being convicted on the new charges.
Speaking to diverse crowds on the campaign trail, Gillespie takes a softer tone on racially charged issues, saying he doesn't' think young immigrants known as Dreamers should be deported. He also talks up the need to help nonviolent felons rejoin society and highlights his decision to break with his party by supporting criminal justice reforms that have been blocked by the GOP-controlled General Assembly.
At the NAACP state conference Saturday in Short Pump, where Gillespie was the only candidate on the statewide Republican ticket to appear, Gillespie said the events in Charlottesville made him "want to vomit."
"Because it's evil," Gillespie said. "I know that we are all created in the image and likeness of God."
At the same event, Northam again blasted Trump for suggesting that both sides shared blame for the violent street clashes surrounding the white supremacist rally.
"These were peaceful people living in Charlottesville," Northam said of the counterprotesters.
