October 16, 2018

A New Ad Boosts ICE and the Border Wall and Demonizes the Left. It’s From a Senate Democrat.

Joe Donnelly even declares, “Peace through strength.”

The latest ad in Indiana’s competitive Senate race features promises to fund President Trump’s border wall, oppose “socialized medicine,” and thwart the plans of “radical leftists” who want to abolish Immigrations and Customs Enforcement.

These are all common talking points for Republicans—but the catch here is that the candidate running the ad is a Democrat, Sen. Joe Donnelly. 

Donnelly, a Democratic incumbent in a state that went for Trump by 19 points in 2016, is in a delicate position as he tries to hold off a challenge from Republican businessman Mike Braun. Though the senator has been stressing his bipartisan credentials all year, the ad attracted some attention on social media for being one of Donnelly’s more blatant attempts to side with President Trump and win over Republican voters. 

The video opens with clips of Medicare for All protesters, as a voiceover ominously warns that “socialists want to turn healthcare over to the government.” “Over my dead body,” Donnelly says. He later declares, “I support ICE” and and touts his support for military spending. He closes by quoting President Ronald Reagan’s mantra: “Peace through strength.” 

The ad is Donnelly’s latest effort to emphasize his independence in order to hang on to his seat. “I don’t work for any political party,” he said in another video earlier this year. “I’m the hired help.” He often mentions that he’s voted with President Trump 62 percent of the time. And though several other red state incumbents have tried to take a tough stance on immigration, it’s still relatively unusual for a Democrat to say outright that they support funding Trump’s border wall. 

Though Donnelly has mostly tried to distance himself from his party, Braun used the candidates’ first debate last week to attack the senator for voting against the confirmation of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh. Unsurprisingly, the candidates spent much of the debate competing to see who could be more pro-Trump. 

The latest polls show Donnelly and Braun in a dead heat. 

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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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