It’s no secret Gary Chambers Jr., the Democratic candidate looking to unseat GOP Sen. John Kennedy in Louisiana this fall, has been running an unabashedly progressive campaign. His efforts to subvert the notion that right-wing politicians are deeply in tune with Southerners’ wants and needs have resonated with many, as evidenced by his viral campaign ads.
The ad featuring him smoking cannabis called attention to the racist application of anti-drug laws and the inequality of a now-booming weed industry. And this ad depicting him setting fire to a Confederate flag served as a rebuttal to conservatives who want to use racist laws in the South to effectively re-establish the power of the Confederacy.
Chambers’ latest ad, released Monday, shows the brutality and desperation set in motion by Republican-backed abortion bans in the wake of the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade. It includes a dramatization of a woman receiving an unsafe abortion in a hotel room and cites data showing countries with the most stringent abortion laws have the highest rates of abortion.
“The government, comprised of mostly white men, has no place to decide for women what is right for them,” Chambers says in the ad.
He later takes a swipe at the GOP’s “pro-life” claim, the term adopted by abortion opponents to sanitize their oppressive views.
“Abortions won’t end, but this democracy will if the government refuses to stay out of people’s personal choices,” Chambers says in the ad. “Make no mistake: women will die. And there’s nothing pro-life about that.”
Check out the full ad below. And keep an eye on Chambers. To quote a well-known Southerner: “The South got somethin’ to say.”
Ja’han Jones is an MS NOW opinion blogger. He previously wrote The ReidOut Blog.