Sen. Jon Husted (R-OH) is working to contain the damage after an Ohio family that lost its three children in a truck crash condemned an attack ad targeting his Democratic opponent, Sherrod Brown.

The ad, produced by the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC), the Senate Republicans' campaign arm, blamed the deaths of Lynnea, Luke, and Logan Soposki on Brown's support for a path to citizenship, citing the immigration status of the driver involved in the crash. The ad asserted that Brown "opened our borders to dangerous illegals" during his earlier Senate service and that "the consequences were deadly." Ads linking immigration policy to crimes committed by people in the country illegally have been a recurring feature of Republican campaign messaging in recent election cycles, and in some past races victims' relatives have publicly objected to being featured.

The Soposki family has demanded that the ad be taken down. "What we all want is to be able to grieve in peace and privacy, and for our family to not be used in such a classless way by a politician, especially without being consulted," the family said.

Pressed by Spectrum News reporter Harry Leigh, Husted emphasized that the ad was not created by his campaign and called for it to be pulled, while continuing to defend its underlying message. "So, you have to understand that wasn't our ad," Husted said. "That was an ad that some third-party group was running; we weren't involved with it. But of course, if the family who was victimized by an illegal alien who killed a family member, I don't want them to have to suffer any more, so I hope they take it down, which I understand they did."

Leigh noted that Husted's account did not match the record: "The ad was paid for by the NRSC and authorized by Husted for Senate," and "as of 3:30 p.m. it has not been removed from the NRSC's YouTube page." That "authorized by" line is not a formality: under federal campaign-finance rules, an ad paid for by a party committee but run with a candidate's authorization carries the campaign's name in its disclaimer, a designation that distinguishes it from party spending made without a campaign's sign-off — which is why the tagline sat at odds with Husted's account.

Husted, previously Ohio's lieutenant governor, was appointed to the U.S. Senate in January 2025 by Governor Mike DeWine to fill the seat vacated by JD Vance when Vance became vice president. Brown represented Ohio in the Senate from 2007 to 2025 before losing re-election to Republican Bernie Moreno, and he is now challenging Husted in the race for the remainder of the term. The special election is set for the November 2026 ballot, with the winner serving out the rest of Vance's term, which runs through January 2029. Brown's comeback bid has made Ohio one of the most closely watched Senate contests of the midterms — and one of a handful of Republican-held seats Democrats are targeting in a year when they are otherwise largely defending their own incumbents.

Source: Raw Story