Republican candidates have leaned into immigration in the 2022 midterm elections, with campaign ads displaying threatening images of the U.S.-Mexico border and pledges to enact legislation to complete former President Donald Trump’s border wall.
In a recent ad, Arizona Senate candidate Blake Masters stands in front of border fencing and tells voters it’s time to “militarize the border” and “end this invasion,” as images of packaged drugs and crowds of migrants slide across the scene.
On a debate stage more than a thousand miles away from the border in Ohio, Republican Senate candidate J.D. Vance pointed to Democratic opposition to increased border wall funding to slam his opponent, Democratic Rep. Tim Ryan.
