A new radio ad seeks to frighten black voters away from Sen. Claire McCaskill’s campaign by suggesting the Democrat supports lynchings.
Another ad tells black voters to ask McCaskill “why she doesn’t want our babies?”
McCaskill’s Republican opponent, Josh Hawley, did not immediately say whether he condemns the ads, which seek to boost his campaign.
A North Carolina-based political action committee has spent nearly $30,000 on the ads, and is facing widespread backlash for similar spots running in other states.
The lynching ad features two African American women discussing the treatment of Justice Brett Kavanaugh during his Senate confirmation hearings and contend that white Democrats will presume African American men are guilty “when a white girl screams rape.”
Another of the group’s Missouri ads accuses McCaskill, who supports abortion rights, of not caring “that black babies that are aborted three times more likely than white babies,” Vernon Robinson, the treasurer of Black Americans for the President’s Agenda, which has paid for ads in St. Louis and Kansas City
“The punch line is, ‘Next time Claire McCaskill asks for your vote, ask why she doesn’t want our babies,’” Robinson said.
“Without 90 percent of the black vote, Claire McCaskill will not be re-elected,” Robinson said.
McCaskill has already had to combat the notion that she’s not done enough to reach out to African American voters on the campaign trail before the ads began airing.