Democratic congressional candidate Pat Davis of New Mexico doesn’t mince words in his new television ad. Looking straight at the camera, Davis opens with a succinct message: “Fuck the NRA.”
Davis, an Albuquerque city councilman and former police officer, continues: “Their pro-gun policies have resulted in dead children, dead mothers and dead fathers.” Then he finishes: “I approve this message. Because if Congress won’t change our gun laws, we’re changing Congress.”
The ad, which is only 15 seconds, ran on a local news network Friday afternoon in Albuquerque. But it’s already prompted a strong reaction from the National Rifle Association and galvanized gun control proponents behind Davis. Which, for a candidate trying to break out in a field of six primary candidates, was probably the point.
On Friday evening, the NRA responded with its own 15-second video, suggesting Davis needs to wash his mouth with soap, and pushing the hashtag #DesperateDavis. David Hogg, a survivor of the school massacre in Parkland, Florida, responded by attacking the NRA’s new president, Oliver North of Iran-Contra scandal fame.
You too! What is the more classy than having a president of your organization that sold guns to terrorists? #OnTheContra #OliverFelon
— David Hogg (@davidhogg111) May 12, 2018
“Every idea we came up with looked like every other gun ad we’d ever seen,” Davis told the Washington Post Saturday. “Finally, somebody just said, you know, like, ‘[bleep] the NRA.’ We’ve told stories and everybody’s marching and another ad of stock footage of that is not going to change the game. Everybody’s thinking it. Why don’t we just say it?” Federal election law requires broadcasters to run political ads uncensored.
Davis is vying for the Democratic nomination in New Mexico’s 1st Congressional District, where the incumbent Democrat, Michelle Lujan Grisham, is running for governor.
