Behold the Craziest Ad of the 2016 Elections—So Far

“I’m hunting RINOs. Care to join me?”

Kay Daly for Congress/YouTube

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Ah, fall. When the leaves turn, decorative gourds grace supermarket shelves, and fringe candidates film themselves firing shotguns at things they don’t like.

When Rep. Renee Ellmers (R-N.C.) defeated an incumbent Democrat five years ago by accusing him of supporting a 9/11 “victory mosque” in Lower Manhattan, she probably didn’t expect to find herself in the crosshairs of tea party activists anytime soon. But since coming to Washington after an upset victory in the 2010 Republican landslide, she’s dabbled in moderation. In just the last year, Ellmers voted against a bill that would have prohibited abortions after 20 weeks, and she opposed repealing President Barack Obama’s executive orders on immigration. In 2014, she won a tough primary but cruised to victory against Democratic nominee (and American Idol contestant) Clay Aiken. In an act of heresy for a former tea party star, she’s gone on record defending so-called RINOs—short for “Republican in Name Only.”

In 2016, she faces stiffer competition. Her top primary challenger, a former county GOP chair named Jim Duncan, is neck and neck with her in fundraising. And another challenger, former North Carolina GOP spokeswoman Kay Daly, just aired an ad in which she blows Ellmers away with a shotgun. Metaphorically, of course.

But really, get a load of this:

What! Let’s go scene by scene.

0:01:

The first words of the ad are, “This feminist…”

0:08:

“…[Ellmers] voted to let homosexuals pretend they’re married!”

0:11:

“She’s a RINO who voted to fund Obamacare and raise the debt ceiling.”

0:19:

The ad then accuses Ellmers of offering special protections to immigrant child molesters.

0:23:

A clip of Ellmers using air quotes as she says the word “RINO,” looped three times.

0:27

Daly announces that she is “hunting RINOs,” fires a shotgun, and invites others to do the same. And…scene.

In an email touting the ad on Thursday, Daly warned that Ellmers “Hispanders” to undocumented immigrants, whom the candidate refers to variously as “interlopers” and “deportables.” She also took aim at Ellmers’ support for gender equality, referring to the Ellmers-backed Equal Rights Amendment as “the one lesbians used to burn their bras over” and touting the congresswoman’s support of “Hillary Clinton’s Feminist Museum bill” (otherwise known as the National Women’s History Museum).

Daly has her work cut out for her before she can take down the incumbent congresswoman. But she does have the backing of Focus on the Family founder James Dobson, and her ad picked up steam after it was aired in the Raleigh market during last week’s GOP debate. If nothing else, we’ll always have this crazy ad.

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WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

Wow.

And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

About that: It’s unfathomably hard in the news business right now, and we came up about $28,000 short during our recent fall fundraising campaign. We simply have to make that up soon to avoid falling further behind than can be made up for, or needing to somehow trim $1 million from our budget, like happened last year.

If you can, please support the reporting you get from Mother Jones—that exists to make a difference, not a profit—with a donation of any amount today. We need more donations than normal to come in from this specific blurb to help close our funding gap before it gets any bigger.

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