A Trump-aligned super PAC pulled its latest attack ad against an Arizona Democrat after it repeatedly showed the wrong man, and the face it used belongs to a Republican who once spoke at Trump’s convention.
The ad from No Going Back PAC targeted Jonathan Nez, the former Navajo Nation president running against GOP Rep. Eli Crane in Arizona’s 2nd Congressional District. It described Nez as “backed by liberal politicians” and “pushing higher taxes,” The Arizona Republic reported.
But twice the ad showed Myron Lizer, Nez’s former vice president, instead of Nez, including over the line “Arizona can’t afford Jonathan Nez.” Lizer is a Republican who spoke at the 2020 Republican National Convention endorsing Trump’s re-election.
A PAC spokesperson called the mix-up an error and said the ad had been corrected and reposted, according to The Washington Post. AdImpact expects the group to spend more than $650,000 in the race, HuffPost reported.
C.J. Warnke of the Democratic-aligned House Majority PAC was swift to pounce in a post on X.
“All week you’ve heard from GOP consultants saying that [Trump strategists James] Blair and [Chris] LaCivita were hard at work while vacationing in Bosnia,” he wrote. “Turns out their work is sloppy and their ads are attacking the wrong guy. No wonder why Trump is P---ED at them.”
Blair and LaCivita, who lead the president’s midterm operation, drew scrutiny this week after The New York Times reported they were each paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to advise the Russian-aligned government of Republika Srpska in Bosnia. Trump threatened to fire them “if there’s a conflict” before concluding there wasn’t one, Reuters reported. Blair runs MAGA Inc., the super PAC that recently took over funding Trump’s own TV ads.