Republican Senate candidate Dave McCormick is taking aim at his Democratic opponent and tugging at Pennsylvania’s heartstrings in a new campaign ad showing the impact of fentanyl — and the open border policies that allow it to flow freely — on American families.
In the 30-second spot, Blair County Sheriff Jim Ott speaks solemnly into the camera, sharing his experience with fentanyl, not only as an officer of the law, but also as a bereaved father.
“Three high schoolers die from fentanyl every day. As a sheriff, I see it. As a father, it happened to me,” Ott said, while a piano played softly in the background.
Then comes the attack.
“If the border was secure, chances are my son would be alive today,” Ott continued.
“We can’t bring back the people we’ve lost. But we can get rid of the weak politicians like Bob Casey who let it happen.”
Fentanyl killed 4,000 Pennsylvanians last year, and the McCormick campaign hopes to pin the drug epidemic and its death toll on Casey, a three-term incumbent who is leading in the polls.
Record-breaking illegal immigration at the U.S.-Mexico border under the Biden administration has fueled GOP messaging, which highlights the role of lax border security as a culprit for fentanyl deaths.
The Ott ad is the latest shot fired in the Casey-McCormick race, a hotly contested battle in a major swing state where ad spending is predicted to break records this cycle.
In July, Casey attacked McCormick, who was CEO of Bridgewater Associates when the company held a $1.7 million stake in China’s largest synthetic opiate manufacturer. McCormick fired back, calling Casey the “ultimate liar and hypocrite” when it turned out the senator holds a three-cent stake in the same company in his personal stock portfolio.
Now the fentanyl blame game has reached the southern border.
Last week, a PAC supporting McCormick ran an ad with the Beaver County sheriff tying “Casey’s open border policy” to fentanyl, drug dealers, and human traffickers.
This week, there’s a new sheriff in town repping McCormick — and he’s not holding back.
“If I could talk to Senator Casey, if this happened in your family, wouldn’t you give as much as you could give? Wouldn’t you provide whatever is needed to make sure you gave the safety to try and stop it from coming into your home?” Ott said in a two-minute version of the ad.
But other advocates fighting the fentanyl crisis don’t place the blame on Casey.
Last week Casey hosted Gregory Swan, the founder of Fentanyl Fathers, at his Pittsburgh home with other families affected by the fentanyl crisis to hear their stories.
Swan’s group, which educates America’s youth about the dangers of fentanyl, featured one of its surrogates in a commercial with Casey, and defended his record on the issue.
“In terms of the FEND Off Fentanyl Act, he got that through as a federal law. So he’s no lightweight when it comes to” fentanyl, Swan told The Post.
The law he refers to sanctions the manufacture and trafficking of illicit fentanyl and its precursors by Chinese criminal organizations and Mexican cartels.
Still, Swan isn’t fully sold on Democrats’ policy solutions.
“The border is not secure. That’s an issue with us,” Swan said.
“Democrats are definitely the owners of the influx of migration, which has brought the drugs. You have a lot of people who are unvetted. It’s pouring, pouring in.”
Beyond stopping Chinese fentanyl precursors and prevention through awareness, Swan said, “You need someone with cojones to take care of the cartels.”
McCormick’s offered an aggressive solution, telling The Post: “We should identify the cartels as terrorist organizations,” and “use our military capacity,” to destroy them.”
