The racist lie that Donald Trump and running mate JD Vance have promoted about Haitian immigrants eating people’s pets may motivate enough voters against the Republican Party to flip the House to Democrats.
A new ad from the Congressional Black Caucus Political Action Committee aims to do just that. The ad, titled “Our Unity is Our Strength,” features a Haitian American woman providing narration.
“They want to tear us apart,” she explains as the ad highlights the most recent smear and connects it to Trump’s history of bigoted rhetoric, most notably his 2018 reference to Haiti, El Salvador, and African nations as “shithole” countries.
She concludes, “Remember, our unity is our strength. L’union fait la force.”
The French term “L’union fait la force” translates to “In Union there is Strength” and is featured on the coat of arms at the center of the Haitian flag.
Trump has frequently repeated the false claim that Haitian migrants in Springfield, Ohio, ate dogs and cats. Following Trump’s popularization of the hoax, bomb threats were made against schools and government facilities in the town.
Over the weekend, Vance told CNN, “If I have to create stories so that the American media actually pays attention to the suffering of the American people, then that’s what I’m going to do.”
“Every day between now and Election Day, Haitian Americans are going to hear a message of unity from the party of progress, inclusion, and the American dream—that is the Democratic Party,” Rep. Gregory Meeks, chair of CBC PAC, said in a statement announcing the ad campaign, as reported by NBC News.
CBC PAC said it would feature the ad in a five-figure campaign in New York’s 4th Congressional District, which is held by Republican Rep. Anthony D’Esposito, who won the race by less than 4 percentage points in 2022. The district also preferred Biden in 2020 by nearly 15 points.
Before D’Esposito, the seat had been held by Democrats from 1997 until 2023, when Rep. Kathleen Rice retired.
The seat is currently rated by the Cook Political Report as one of 24 “tossup” seats critical to determining the party in control of the House after the fall elections. Currently, Republicans have 220 seats in the House to Democrats’ 211 (there are four vacancies) after the disappointing results of the 2022 midterm elections, where a predicted “red wave” ended up becoming a “red trickle.”
Former town supervisor Laura Gillen is the Democrat challenging D’Esposito, in a rematch of their 2022 race.
“I'm outraged that the Trump campaign and several Congressional Republicans, including here in New York, are amplifying racist conspiracies against the Haitian-American community,” she wrote on Sept. 10. “Our Haitian neighbors here in Nassau County are an integral part of our community, and should be celebrated—not ostracized. Anthony D’Esposito's silence is terrible—he should hold his colleagues accountable for these awful conspiracies.”
D’Esposito endorsed Trump’s campaign in February.
D’Esposito was also recently criticized by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee for failing to condemn Trump after he traveled with 9/11 conspiracy theorist Laura Loomer to the 9/11 memorial in New York City.
In a poll released on Sept. 12 by GQR for the pro-Democrat House Majority PAC, Gillen held a 50% to 47% lead over D’Esposito.
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