Republican Senate candidate Dave McCormick took aim at his Democratic opponent and drew heartstrings in Pennsylvania in a new campaign ad that shows the impact of fentanyl — and the open border policy that allows it to flow freely — on American families.
At the 30-second mark, Blair County Sheriff Jim Ott spoke solemnly to the camera, sharing his experience with fentanyl, not only as a law officer, but also as a devoted father.
“Three high school kids die from fentanyl every day. As a sheriff, I saw it. As a father, it happened to me,” Ott said, as the piano played softly in the background.
Then came the attack.
“If the border was secure, chances are my son would be alive today,” Ott said.
“We can’t bring back the people we’ve lost. But we can get rid of weak politicians like Bob Casey who let this happen.
Fentanyl killed 4,000 Pennsylvanians last year, and McCormick’s campaign is hoping to blame the drug epidemic and the death toll on Casey, a three-term incumbent who is leading in the polls.
Record-breaking illegal immigration at the US-Mexico border under the Biden administration has fueled GOP messaging, which has highlighted the role of lax border security as a cause of fentanyl deaths.
Ott’s ad is the latest shot fired in the Casey-McCormick race, a hotly contested battle in a primary 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 took a $1.7 million stake in China’s largest synthetic opiate manufacturer. McCormick fired back, calling Casey “the ultimate liar and hypocrite” when the senator held 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 linking “Casey’s open border policy” to fentanyl, drug traffickers, and human traffickers.
This week, there’s a new sheriff in town repping McCormick — and he’s not holding back.
“If I may speak to Senator Casey, if this happens to your family, won’t you give what you can give? Won’t you provide whatever it takes to make sure that you give them security so that they don’t come into your home?” Ott spoke in a two-minute version of the ad.
But other advocates against the fentanyl crisis don’t blame Casey.
Last week Casey hosted Gregory Swan, founder of Fentanyl Fathers, in his Pittsburgh home with other families affected by the fentanyl crisis to hear their stories.
Swan’s group, which educates young Americans about the dangers of fentanyl, featured one of its surrogates in an ad with Casey, and defended its record on the issue.
“In terms of the FEND Off Fentanyl Act, they’ve got that as a federal law. So they’re not lighthearted when it comes to” fentanyl, Swan told The Post.
The law refers to sanctions against the illegal manufacturing and trade of fentanyl and its precursors by Chinese criminal organizations and Mexican cartels.
However, Swan is not completely sold on the Democratic policy solution.
“The border is not secure. That’s a problem with us,” Swan said.
“Democrats always own the flow of migration, which brings the drug. You have a lot of people you don’t like. It’s sunset, come in.”
Beyond stopping Chinese fentanyl precursors and prevention through awareness, Swan said, “You need people who cojones to take care of the cartel.”
McCormick offered an aggressive solution, telling The Post: “We need to identify these cartels as terrorist organizations,” and “use our military capacity,” to destroy them.
