Best Political Ad Ever: An Openly Gay Candidate Opens His TV Spot With ‘F*ck The NRA’
One of the biggest clichés in politics is that candidates will sugar-coat policies to make them as appealing to the widest audience as possible, generally by describing policies so broadly as to be empty. But New Mexico’s Pat Davis isn’t one of those. His latest spot — which aired on local TV — opens with a very simple sentiment: “Fuck the NRA.”
Pat Davis, a former police officer and current Albuquerque city councilperson, is running for the 1st Congressional District in New Mexico on the Democratic ticket. His ad ran at about 12:30 p.m. on Friday on the local CBS affiliate, KRQE. If he is elected, he would become the seventh openly-gay member of the House of Representatives
The ad was simple. Davis stands before the Albuquerque skyline and matter-of-factly says, “Fuck the NRA. Their pro-gun policies have resulted in dead children, dead mothers and dead fathers. I’m Pat Davis and I approve this message. Because if Congress won’t change our gun laws, we need to change Congress.”
Even though the ad ran in the middle of the day, it was broadcast uncensored. Station manager Bill Anderson said the station isn’t allowed to censor political messages. He said, “We received a request for airtime from a legitimate federal candidate for office, and according to federal election rules, we are required to give him the same access as his opponents. This station, by law, is not permitted to censor or in any way edit this commercial.”
Instead, the station ran a brief disclaimer before the ad explaining the situation and that there “may be inappropriate language.”
For the primary election, he’s got five competitors, including Deb Haaland (who, if elected, would become the first Native American woman in Congress) and former U.S. attorney Damon Martinez — and none of them have a clear lead.
Haaland was the only candidate to respond, issuing a statement: “The NRA and the arms industry are responsible for horrific preventable deaths all across America — with communities of color hardest hit by this epidemic of violence. I fully understand the anger many people are expressing, and I share it — even if I might use different words.”
On the other hand the NRA made a response video — censoring the original statement, while playing jaunty music. After Davis says “Fuck the NRA”, it freeze-frames as the message “Is it fair to say that Pat Davis needs one of these,” with some clip-art of a bar of soap. The video ends with “Stay classy, Pat!”
We’d just like to point out that, instead of engaging with Davis’ statements, they chose to focus on that he used an expletive. So, there you have it: the NRA. Constant mass shootings are a problem that can’t be solved — but god help you if you swear.
Seriously. Fuck the NRA.
Watch Pat Davis’ “Fuck the NRA” ad below:
And, watch the NRA’s response to Pat Davis below:
WATCH OUT: #NewMexico City Councilor @PatDavisNM is running for #Congress and has a foul message ? for the NRA's 5M+ members. Check it out for yourself and use #DesperateDavis to let him know how you feel. #NRA #2A pic.twitter.com/tXh0VcNk3p
— NRA (@NRA) May 12, 2018
