Latino group launches anti-Trump Virginia campaign ad

A prominent Latino advocacy group launched a Spanish-language campaign ad in Virginia Tuesday, jumping into a hotly-contested race in a key swing state.

The ad, produced by the Latino Victory Fund (LVF), targets Republican gubernatorial candidate Ed Gillespie, tying him to President Trump’s immigration policies.

“With one vote, we can decide Virginia’s future. And with one vote, we can say, ‘no.’ No to hate. No to the insults against immigrants. No to fear. No to destroyed families, and no to Donald Trump and Ed Gillespie’s efforts to divide us,” says a voiceover on the ad.

{mosads}Gillespie has taken to the airwaves tying criminality to illegal immigration — and to the Democratic candidate, Virginia Lt. Gov. Ralph Northam — drawing sharp criticism from Democrats and Hispanic groups who dispute that link.

Gillespie has campaigned on Trump’s message, particularly when it comes to immigration and cultural issues like the preservation or removal of Confederate monuments.

Most polls have Northam leading in the race, but he’s failed to garner the enthusiastic national Democratic support of other post-2016 candidates.

And while Latinos make up about 9 percent of Virginia’s population, they’re only 5 percent of eligible voters, according to the Pew Research Center.

Still, the Virginia race is a test to gauge Hispanic enthusiasm in the polls amid the national debate on immigration and minority rights.

“Just weeks after the racial terror in Charlottesville, Ed Gillespie has decided to follow the hate-filled rhetoric of Donald Trump, and has chosen division and hate over unity and progress, ” said Cristóbal J. Alex, president of LVF.

“Gillespie has chosen to attack our community with race-baiting myths and lies. It’s no wonder why Trump has voiced support for Gillespie and his efforts to demonize immigrants,” he added.

The latter half of the ad turns from attacks on Gillespie and Trump to touting Northam and Hispanic Democratic candidates in the state.

“But with this same vote, we can say yes. Yes to a state where everyone is welcome,” says the voiceover.

The ad will run on Virginia’s Telemundo affiliate, first airing during halftime of the Honduras-Mexico World Cup qualifying match, which will be broadcast at 8 p.m. Tuesday.

The match is expected draw a large TV audience, as it’s the last game of the qualifying rounds and a Honduran victory could send that team to next year’s World Cup in Russia. Mexico, whose national soccer team draws massive stadium attendance and TV audiences in the United States, has already qualified.