Ohio family decries use of photo in Republican Senate ad

Republicans are facing backlash for a Senate campaign ad that tied Democratic candidate and former Sen. Sherrod Brown (Ohio) to a highway accident. The victims’ family is speaking out against the use of their story in the political ad.

Brown’s race against incumbent Sen. Jon Husted (R-Ohio) is one of the most competitive contests in the tense battle to win the Senate majority.

The National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC), which fundraises for and supports Senate Republican candidates, paid for a short ad, mostly on streaming services and devices, that ties Brown’s stance on immigration to a fatal traffic crash involving two young parents and their 1-year-old son.

“Brown opened our border to dangerous illegals,” a voiceover says in the ad, before briefly describing the accident and showing a picture of the Soposki family, all of whom died after a semitruck crashed into their car.

The driver of the semitruck was Modou Ngom, an immigrant who came to the United States in the 1990s and was naturalized as a citizen in 2015. Ngom is now under investigation by Immigration and Customs Enforcement for allegedly using fraudulent names and dates of birth to obtain an ID.

The ad highlights a key dynamic in the fight for the Senate, as Republicans look to make immigration a central issue. Republicans in Congress and President Trump have repeatedly tied illegal border crossings and crimes committed by immigrants to Democratic policies around the country.

But the Soposkis’ relatives did not approve of the use of their family’s story in the Ohio ad. Jesse Mallen, whose sister Lynnea died in the crash, wrote to the Husted campaign privately and asked it to take down the ad, according to The New York Times .

The ad has stopped running after more than two weeks, although a clip of it remains on the NRSC’s YouTube page . Husted, speaking to Spectrum News on Thursday, clarified that the ad was not from his campaign but from “some third-party group.” At the end of the ad, a line notes that it was authorized by Husted’s campaign.

When asked if it would be taken down, he said “of course.”

“If a family was victimized by an illegal alien who killed a family member, I don’t want them to have to suffer anymore,” Husted said. “So I hope they’d take it down, which I understand they did.”

The NRSC, in a statement, repeated the sentiment of the ad.

“For 32 years, radical leftist Sherrod Brown backed open border policies that cost Ohioans their lives, without ever apologizing,” said Nick Puglia, a spokesperson for the NRSC. “Our ad campaigns will continue to hold Sherrod Brown accountable.”