New Becchi ad attempts to link Sherrill to AOC, Omar

Republican House challenger Rosemary Becchi’s third television ad attempts to link Rep. Mikie Sherrill (D-Montclair) to two members of the squad, a group of progressive first-term congresswomen.

The 30-second spot, titled “Freshman,” begins with a narrator speaking over Reps. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) before pivoting into an attack at Sherrill’s voting record.

Script:

Narrator: Today we have Democrats like Ilhan Omar and AOC in Congress, their policies violent and radical.

Omar: We need to completely dismantle the Minneapolis police department.

Narrator: Mikie Sherrill was supposed to be different but votes with Nancy Pelosi 99% of the time, and she says ‘I’m incredibly proud of my freshman class.’ Proud of this? Mikie Sherrill Should be ashamed instead.

The ad’s Sherrill quote came from a New Jersey Globe Debate held on Oct. 11. The congresswoman was responding to a question about whether she would back Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Cali.) for another term as House speaker.

“I worked really hard to get into Congress and thought we needed new leadership, thought we really needed the energetic ideas of new leaders, so I’m incredibly proud of my freshman class,” she said. “We have a lot of innovative ideas coming out of that on the environment, gun safety legislation, helping to support better tax reform and health care.”

Becchi has frequently attacked Sherrill over her voting record’s similarity to Pelosi’s. Sherrill was one of 15 House Democrats who did not vote to give Pelosi her leadership position. She declined to say whether she’d back the California Democrat for another term if she won re-election.

It was not immediately clear where the ad would run or how much money Becchi’s campaign put behind the buy.