EXCLUSIVE — A super PAC supporting Republican David McCormick’s bid to unseat Sen. Bob Casey (D-PA) in the fall launched a new ad attacking Democrats over the crisis at the southern border.
The 30-second ad from the Keystone Renewal PAC, titled “Dangerous,” blasts President Joe Biden and, by extension, Casey for not stopping criminal illegal immigrants from entering the United States. It is part of a $4 million ad buy announced last month and will run in the Harrisburg, Johnstown, Pittsburgh, and Wilkes-Barre media markets.
“Terrorist, here illegally. Drug dealer, here illegally. Human trafficker, here illegally. They disappear into our communities and endanger us all,” a narrator says in the ad alongside images of suspected criminals. “That’s Joe Biden’s open border. Combat veteran Dave McCormick knows how to keep us safe. Close the border, add Border Patrol, build the wall.”
The ad then transitions to McCormick, who says: “This is a time when we need leaders who will stand up and fight for our country.”
Republicans are campaigning on illegal immigration, repeatedly cited as a top concern by voters, with the hope that the matter, along with the public’s frustration over gas and grocery prices, will help them retake the White House and the Senate.
Biden, seemingly responding to the frustration of voters as he seeks a second term, announced an executive order that bars nearly all migrants entering the U.S. illegally from seeking asylum at the southern border.
The asylum ban, announced earlier this month, remains in effect once the average of migrant encounters between ports of entry tops 2,500 arrests per day. It won’t be lifted until the number of migrants apprehended declines to 1,500.
Republicans have dismissed the policy shift as “too little, too late” and, in recent days, have highlighted the arrest of eight men from Tajikistan with alleged ties to the terrorist organization ISIS-K in several cities in the U.S., including Philadelphia. The men had entered the U.S. through the southern border illegally.
In the competitive race for the Pennsylvania Senate seat, McCormick allies are hoping that by tying Casey to Biden, who suffers from low approval ratings, it will sink the incumbent’s reelection campaign.
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“Casey is a puppet of the radical Biden regime and is directly to blame for our porous border,” Kaelan Dorr, a spokesman for Keystone Renewal PAC, told the Washington Examiner in a statement. “Pennsylvanians need representation in the Senate that will build the wall, close our border, and actually support the brave men and women protecting our country. They need Dave McCormick.”
The Washington Examiner reached out to the Casey campaign for comment.