Television ads condemning Republican Congressional candidates, linking them to the party's presumptive nominee Donald Trump, will begin airing nationwide this week. More specifically, the ads will be aired in Illinois' 10th congressional District.
The ads, paid for by the Democratic Congessional Campaign Committee, cost upwards of $1 million, according to Politico.
"As Donald Trump runs a campaign pitting Americans against each other and pushing ideas that threaten our country’s security, Republicans in Congress are just standing by him,” an ad titled “Sidekicks” says.
Republican Rep. Bob Dold faces a tough bid for reelection against Brad Schneider in a battle for his 10th district House seat. The congressman's campaign responded to the DCCC's ads in a statement Thursday.
"Everyone realizes that the DCCC can’t actually attack Bob Dold on his record of effective, independent leadership that’s been endorsed across the political spectrum and in every corner of the 10th district, so they’re now falsely hoping voters aren’t smart enough to see through this laughably dishonest ad as they desperately try to prop-up their embarrassingly incompetent and hyper-partisan candidate Brad Schneider," Dold campaign spokesperson Danielle Hagan said.
In May, Dold told Big John Howell that he wouldn’t support the divisive Trump.
“Whether it be Mr. Trump’s comments about women, his comments about Muslims, his comments about latinos, for me, it was very personal, his comments about POW’s," Dold told Howell. "As you know my uncle was the second one shot in the Vietnam War, and for me those comments altogether are not about uniting a country."
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Dold noted that he wouldn’t support presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton either, but would rather “write someone in.”
According to the Atlantic, the congressman first came out against Trump last year, citing inflammatory comments directed toward Hispanics, veterans, women and Muslims.
The DCCC released a memo attacking Dold on March 15, the day of Illinois’ primary election. The report accuses Dold of voting along party lines and claims "Donald Trump does not belong" in the district.
In 2010, Dold won Sen. Mark Kirk’s vacated 10th district House seat. The congressman lost the seat to Schneider in 2012, but won it back in a 2014 rematch.
