Democratic candidate Laura Benjamin announced that she's dropping out of a House race several days after putting out a fundraising campaign advertisement shredding into assassinated conservative icon Charlie Kirk. Who in their right mind thought this was a good way to drum up cash for a political campaign?
When it comes to compassion and basic human decency, Benjamin is sorely lacking.
Benjamin, a transgender former city council member in Wisconsin running in opposition to current three-term seat holder Rep. Derrick Van Orden (R-Wis.), announced that she was withdrawing from the campaign on Friday. The reason?
A lack of campaign funds.
In other words, the advertisement failed to elicit the response Benjamin was hoping for. Tastelessly attacking someone whom a transgender rights activist recently killed — and Tyler Robinson is — or daring to try and hold civil debates with his political opposition, fails miserably as a strategy to convince folks to open their wallets.
The Democrat ripped into Kirk for his "hateful rhetoric," which is code for "he said things I didn't like," in ads that appeared on Facebook, each featuring a donation link.
“Running a congressional campaign across a district as large as WI-03 takes significant financial resources,” Benjamin said in a statement about the withdrawal of the campaign. “Despite the incredible support we’ve received, the path to victory simply isn’t there without the level of fundraising required to reach voters.”
“Benjamin swiftly decided to pull out of the race after the ads criticized Kirk. The ads ran for two days. In the ads, Benjamin attacked Van Orden for slamming her comments about Kirk’s assassination.
“What kind of person blames me for violence just because I condemned Charlie Kirk’s hateful rhetoric?” the then-candidate said in a series of ads that ran between Wednesday and Thursday. “Derrick Van Orden, of course.”
Two of Benjamin's ads included images of the murdered co-founder of Turning Point USA, along with the original comments the Democrat made just hours after officials pronounced Kirk dead.
“Charlie Kirk was hateful toward the lgbtq community and called for the eradication of trans care,” Benjamin said. “Not that this justifies the pain his family will endure or the random violent taking of his life. But it’s clear there is a cycle of hate growing.”
“And it’s not going to stop with more hate,” the then-candidate continued.
Like many on the left, Benjamin claimed that shooter Tyler Robinson didn’t belong to the radical left and falsely stated that Kirk wanted to eradicate the LGBTQ community.
Benjamin posted the message on Bluesky again on Sept. 17, along with the statement, "Everyone should be Antifa." The former House candidate also referred to Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents as "America's Gestapo."
President Donald Trump recently labeled Antifa a domestic terrorist organization due to its many acts of violence, so telling people to identify with the movement proved to be a terrible idea.
The war chest for Benjamin's campaign contained only $10,000 at the end of June.
The decision to fundraise off opposition to Kirk comes after Democrats faced well-deserved backlash for the callous and often vile responses to the assassination. Democrats across the country made posts in celebration of the conservative activist's murder. Many employers fired staff over those online comments.
Almost 60 House Democrats voted "no" on a resolution to honor Kirk's life, along with 38 simply voting "present," and 22 refused to vote.
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