Club for Growth-affiliated group launches ad targeting Gallego on crime

Win it Back PAC, a political group affiliated with Club for Growth Action, is launching a new ad targeting Rep. Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.), who’s running for the Senate in Arizona, on crime and immigration. 

“Sgt. Brandon Mendoza spent Mother's Day with his mom,” states the narrator in the 30–second ad, called “Justice,”, noting he told his mother he loved her.

“Then headed off to protect the City of Mesa, killed hours later by a criminal illegal alien,” the narrator says. “Yet Ruben Gallego voted against a bipartisan bill encouraging the death penalty for killing a police officer. For Ruben Gallego, justice means just one death sentence. When illegal aliens kill cops.”

The ad, which was first shared with The Hill, will air in the Phoenix market between Wednesday and Aug. 13 and is backed by a $900,000 broadcast ad buy. 

The ad references an incident in 2014 when Mendoza, the Arizona sergeant, died after being hit by a driver who was an undocumented immigrant headed the wrong way on the road.

Mendoza's mother wrote to then-President Obama following the crash, asking why the other driver wasn’t deported earlier given he was convicted on other charges years before.

Mendoza's mother has been politically active, and attended former President Trump’s inauguration. 

The ad alludes to legislation introduced in 2017 that would add killing or targeting a law enforcement officer, firefighter or another type of first responder as an aggravating factor in weighing a potential death penalty sentence. Gallego voted against the legislation, which later stalled in the Senate.

However, the U.S. criminal code already has considerations in place for aggravating factors for death sentence determinations, if a defendant commits an offense against a law enforcement officer.

Gallego is gearing up to run against Republican Kari Lake for the Arizona Senate seat being vacated by Sen. Krysten Sinema (I-Ariz.). An aggregate of Arizona surveys compiled by Decision Desk HQ shows Gallego leading Lake 47 percent to 43 percent. 

The nonpartisan election handicapper Cook Political Report rates the seat “lean Democrat.”