A super PAC called Frontiers of Freedom (FF) has released ads this campaign cycle against Ruben Gallego, highlighting his far-left record and his “record of anti-Catholic bigotry.”
George Landrith, president of FF, explained the purpose of the hard-hitting ads in a statement.
“Too many Republicans, on the advice of consultants and under pressure from family and friends to show what nice people they are, respond with ineffective defensive ads, either portraying themselves as ‘nice people’ who make breakfast and walk the dog, or focusing on obscure feel-good issues,” he said.
“As a result, key races became more about Republican challengers’ reputations than about the radical voting records of Democrat incumbents. In 1980, Super PAC ads were key to delivering 12 new Republican senators to Ronald Reagan, and all they did was use the word ‘liberal,’” Landrith said. “Once people realize all the attack ads against GOP candidates are just smokescreens to hide the fact Democrats are left-wing extremists, it’s the difference maker.”
The latest ad, “The Real Gallego,” asked, “Why hasn’t the Arizona media asked Gallego to answer the TV ad about his record of bigotry towards the Catholic Church?” It featured a screenshot of The Arizona Republic — which runs articles almost daily attacking Kari Lake — and denounced the media for giving Gallego “a free pass.”
An ad titled “Ruben Gallego Anti-Catholic Bigotry Issue” laid out his record on social issues, where Hispanics have traditionally leaned conservative. The narrator stated, “The Little Sisters of the Poor give up their lives to care for the elderly and homeless, but Ruben Gallego joined the Democratic Party’s cruel war against them by supporting the leader of the 23 attorney generals trying to force the sisters to violate their fate and pay for abortion pills.”
Gallego voted to confirm Xavier Becerra as Secretary of Health and Human Services under former President Barack Obama, who sued the nuns. The Little Sisters ultimately won, with the Supreme Court ruling 7-2 in 2020 that they were not required to provide abortion pills and contraception.
The ad observed that “Catholics give up their faith to become judges,” referencing Democrats’ opposition to Trump’s Supreme Court appointment of Amy Coney Barrett, a Catholic. The late Senator Dianne Feinstein said to Coney Barrett during her confirmation hearing regarding her faith, “When you read your speeches, the conclusion one draws is that the dogma lives loudly within you, and that’s of concern.”
Regarding transgenderism, the ad said, “Ruben Gallego supported the Harris-Biden administration’s gender craziness, forcing Catholic schools to destroy women’s sports and allow men in women’s locker rooms.”
The ad addressed abortion. “Gallego supported the Harris Biden administration’s attempts to force Catholic doctors, nurses and hospitals to perform abortions. Gallego never protested the Harris-Biden … jailing of peacefully protesting pro life activists. Gallego is a pro-abortion extremist supporting unrestricted, up-to-the-moment-of-birth abortion paid for by taxpayers against legislation that will protect newborn abortion survivors; even refused to speak out against the Democratic governor justifying the killing of children who survived abortions.”
Virginia’s last Democratic governor, Ralph Northam, defended a bill that would allow a woman to receive an abortion even while she was going into labor. He said during an interview in 2019, “If a mother is in labor, I can tell you exactly what would happen. The infant would be delivered. The infant would be kept comfortable. The infant would be resuscitated if that’s what the mother and the family desired, and then a discussion would ensue between the physicians and the mother.”
Next, the ad discussed traditional Catholics. “Gallego also refused to speak out against the Harris-Biden use of the FBI to target traditional Catholics as potential terrorist threats, and he won’t criticize the FBI director for his false testimony.” The ad flashed a screenshot of an article in the Washington Examiner titled “Wray Lied About Targeting Catholics.”
According to the article, Wray downplayed the role the FBI had in issuing a memo stating that the bureau “should particularly monitor ‘traditionalist Catholic’ people, such as those who prefer the Latin Mass, as potential purveyors of ‘violent extremis[m]’ who may need to be targeted for ‘threat mitigation.’” Wray redacted parts of the memo, hiding the fact that three FBI offices were involved in the effort, and instead told Congress that only one FBI office was involved.
The ad addressed other issues important to Hispanics and Catholics.
“Ruben Gallego stayed silent even as the Harris-Biden White House fought Catholics and all Christians by replacing the traditional Easter Sunday proclamation with the offensive Transgender Day of Visibility,” the ad says. “He never went on the record about the Harris-Biden administration’s initial refusal to allow the Knights of Columbus to celebrate a Catholic mass on Memorial Day, a clear act of religious bigotry and an assault on all veterans’ Latino American families.”
The Knights of Columbus, an all-men Catholic service organization, has held the annual mass at Poplar Grove National Cemetery in Petersburg, Virginia, for the past 60 years. However, earlier this year, the Biden administration refused to issue the group a permit to continue the event. Only after the group sued did the Biden administration reverse its decision.
The ad spoke directly to Hispanics. “Remember Latino Americans. Remember how evil governments in Mexico, and Venezuela hated the church and Catholics and how they persecuted priests, nuns and lay people, to Latino Americans to know from history that this must not happen here in America.”
The ad ended suggesting people ask Gallego why he supported so many “negative anti-Catholic measures” and why he won’t stand up to “anti-Catholic bigotry.”
According to the Association of Mature American Citizens (AMAC), the ads have an effect.
“These ads, which began three weeks ago, are credited with sparking a wave of media stories about the anti-Catholic issues taken up by Newt Gingrich (notably on Larry Kudlow’s show), Donald Trump’s article in Politico, and the New York Post about how the Catholic issue is costing Democrats — fueled further by the controversy surrounding the Al Smith dinner,” AMAC said.
For the Arizona Senate race, recent polls show the neck and neck race between Gallego and Lake.
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Rachel Alexander is a reporter at The Arizona Sun Times and The Star News Network. Follow Rachel on Twitter / X. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Ruben Gallego” by Ruben Gallego.
