As early primary voting began in the Midwestern battleground state of Ohio on Tuesday, social media users questioned the authenticity of a photo used in a campaign ad by U.S. Senate candidate Josh Mandel. In the ad, the former state treasurer invokes Martin Luther King Jr. and his own time as a Marine to vocally oppose critical race theory.
The 30-second advertisement promoting his run in the state’s heated Republican primary features photographs of Mandel in Iraq, including one of him standing in the middle of a group of five Black soldiers set to a voiceover saying, “I didn’t do two tours in Anbar province, fighting alongside Marines of every color, to come home and be called a racist. There’s nothing racist about stopping critical race theory and loving America.”
