DNC launches bilingual ads in Tucson during Pence’s visit to AZ

The Democratic National Committee released two digital ads, one in English and one in Spanish, targeting Tucson voters during Vice President Mike Pence’s visit to Arizona on Tuesday. 

The advertisements, which display the words, “This administration failed us,” are running for a 24-hour period on the websites of the Arizona Daily Star and its sister Spanish-language publication, La Estrella de Tucsón. The ads mark the first digital bilingual advertisement the DNC is running in Arizona for the 2020 presidential race, the DNC said. 

Pence’s visit to Arizona focused in part on touting law enforcement at a time when Democrats and other advocates on the left are calling for budget cuts for police departments after a decade of reforms that still see Black Americans more susceptible to being fatally shot by police.

“We don’t have to choose between supporting law enforcement and supporting our African American neighbors. We can do both, we have done both and we are going to keep doing both for four more years,” Pence said in Tucson on Tuesday morning. “We are not going to defund the police, not now, not ever. We are going to back the blue.” 

He spoke at an event hosted by the campaign’s Cops for Trump coalition. Justin Harris, president of Arizona Police Association, which represents 50 law enforcement agencies in the state, spoke at the event. He called Trump the clear “law and order candidate” for president. 

Pence will also attend the launch of the “Latter-day Saints for Trump” campaign coalition in Mesa Tuesday afternoon. 

In a press release, DNC Chair Tom Perez called Pence’s visit a distraction from “Trump’s ineffective pandemic response.”

“Nothing Mike Pence says today can distract from the truth about Trump: his failed leadership has cost Arizonans their lives and their jobs,” Perez said. “At every turn, Arizonans have paid the price for Trump’s failures, and they’ll hold him accountable in November.”

Less than two weeks ago, the DNC also launched a Spanish-language ad criticizing Trump for his calls to reopen schools. 

The Trump campaign has also launched four Spanish-language ads recently, following a controversy involving Goya Foods, a staple food brand among Latino families in the US and Puerto Rico. The company’s CEO praised Trump in early July, drawing both backlash against the brand and support for it.   

The campaign didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment on whether those Spanish-language ads ran in Arizona.