A Republican congressman in central Arkansas and his challenger on Thursday condemned a political action committee's radio ad that suggests white Democrats will lynch black Americans if they win the midterm election next month.
GOP Rep. French Hill criticized the ad from Black Americans for the President's Agenda, which invokes the accusation that U.S. Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh sexually assaulted a woman when he was a teenager. A woman in the ad says that "white Democrats will be lynching black folk again."
"I'm voting to keep Congressman French Hill and the Republicans because we have to protect our men and boys," the woman in the ad says. "We can't afford to let white Democrats take us back to bad old days of race verdicts, life sentences and lynchings when a white girl screams rape."
Hill, who represents the 2nd District covering Little Rock and seven central Arkansas counties, blasted the ad.
"I condemn this outrageous ad in the strongest terms," he said in a statement. "There's no place in Arkansas for this nonsense."
Vernon Robinson, the PAC's co-founder and treasurer, said the ad has been running in Little Rock. He said the ad is part of a $50,000 buy that includes a similar spot running on stations in Missouri, where Republican Josh Hawley is trying to unseat Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill. The group had not coordinated the ad with Hill or spoken to his campaign about it, Robinson said.
Robinson did not immediately respond to an email Thursday night from The Associated Press asking if the group planned to pull the ad.
Clarke Tucker, the Democratic state legislator running against Hill, also condemned the ad.
"Congressman Hill and his allies will have to live with the kind of campaign they're running. This radio ad is disgraceful and has no place in our society," Tucker said in a statement.
State Rep. Michael John Gray, chairman of the Democratic Party of Arkansas, also released a statement that said Hill should demand the ad's removal: "It demeans the pain and experience of African Americans and exploits for political gain centuries of segregation and racial violence, including lynching."
The North Carolina-based PAC was formed earlier this year, and this week reported having about $52,507 cash on hand and $62,769 in debt. The group has spent about $30,000 in recent weeks on ad buys in Arkansas and Missouri races, according to Federal Election Commission records.
Arkansas hasn't sent a Democrat to the U.S. House since 2010.
Information for this article was contributed by Brian Slodysko of The Associated Press.
Metro on 10/19/2018