Zach Dasher, a Republican businessman running for Congress in Louisiana’s fifth district, has one major thing going for him: He’s the nephew of Phil Robertson, patriarch of the Duck Dynasty clan. And he appears to be squeezing everything he can out of the connection. In a new ad, Robertson, who was suspended by A&E last year over comments he made in a GQ interview on homosexuality and race, holds up a Bible and a rifle, as an acoustic version of “Amazing Grace” plays in the background. “Hey, Louisiana,” Robertson says. “Bibles and guns brought us here. And Bibles and guns will keep us here. Zach Dasher believes in both. That’s why I’m voting for him.”
The ad’s content isn’t much of a surprise. Dasher has made his faith (and Duck Dynasty ties) a central part of his campaign, has said godlessness is driving America toward “tyranny and death,” and worries that the term “YOLO” encourages atheism by discounting the idea of an afterlife. Robertson has also raised money for Dasher, at one fundraiser referring to the candidate as “my little nephew who came from the loins of my sister.”
Ahead of a special election for the seat in 2013, Willie Robertson, Dasher’s cousin, cut an ad for Rep. Vance McAllister, but the incumbent congressman has fallen out of favor with the family since he was caught on tape kissing a staffer.
