Red brother vs. blue brother
With constant reminders from both parties of the existential importance of the midterm elections, political passions are running high. People are choosing sides, taking stands — and sometimes putting politics above blood by making ads against their own relatives who are running for office.
The most conspicuous instance came in the race for Arizona’s Fourth Congressional District, covering the western third of the state, where six of the nine siblings of Republican Rep. Paul Gosar endorsed his opponent, Democrat David Brill. In the minute-long ad that doesn’t reveal that the speakers are family members until the end, the six Gosar siblings criticize their brother for not working to help rural Arizonans. Gosar is a member of the conservative Freedom Caucus who garnered ridicule for his claim that his background as a dentist qualified him to draw conclusions from the “body language” of FBI official Peter Strzok during a hearing by the House Oversight and Judiciary Committee.
“You can’t pick your family,” wrote Gosar on Twitter after the ad came out. “My siblings who chose to film ads against me are all liberal Democrats who hate President Trump.”
Gosar’s 85-year-old mother, Bernadette, who says she shares her son’s conservative views, told the New York Times she was “shocked” and “crushed” by the video, which she said she hadn’t known about until the newspaper called her.
In the race for the House seat Paul Ryan is vacating, Democratic candidate Randy Bryce found himself on the receiving end of an attack ad from his brother, a Milwaukee police officer. In the ad, James Bryce criticized his brother for not being supportive enough of law enforcement and endorsed his Republican opponent, Bryan Steil. This drew in their mother, who condemned the ad in a letter given to media outlets, including Yahoo News.
“I’m used to my sons getting into disagreements with each other — every mom is. And I understand that my boys see the world differently when it comes to politics,” Nancy Bryce wrote. “There is now a group of people from Washington who consider it a good idea to pit my boys against each other for their own political gain. But they didn’t consider a mother’s pain at seeing her children used as tools in a political fight, splashed with millions of dollars of ads across the airwaves.”
The ad was funded by the Congressional Leadership Fund, a PAC closely aligned with Ryan. Milwaukee’s Journal Sentinel newspaper reported in May that James Bryce had considered running for the Republican nomination himself and had donated to Steil.
“I am disappointed and, frankly, disgusted that we are at a point where the Republican party is so focused on sowing division in our families and communities, with such little regard for the truth,” Nancy Bryce wrote. “Shame on this ‘super PAC’ for running these ads, shame on its leader Paul Ryan for funding them, and shame on people of good conscience who choose to sit idly by and watch this pain inflicted upon a family in the name of partisan politics.”
There was also a family feud in the Nevada gubernatorial race, where Republican candidate Adam Laxalt — the state’s attorney general — saw cousins back his opponent, Clark County Commission Chairman Steve Sisolak. Two of Laxalt’s cousins spoke at a fundraiser for Sisolak in late September, throwing their support behind the Democrat.
“We feel an obligation to speak out in opposition to Adam Laxalt’s candidacy lest there be any misunderstanding that because he carries our family name he represents our family’s values,” Monique Laxalt said on behalf of herself and her sister Kristin in prepared remarks. “We believe he came from Washington to Nevada for the sole purpose of using the family name to pursue a political career which would allow him to eventually return to Washington as one of Washington’s most elite. We do not believe he came to Nevada based on any true connection to, or interest in, this State.”
Last week, Adam Laxalt’s aunt spoke in an ad endorsing Sisolak for the position. The Laxalt family has a long history in Nevada politics, as Adam Laxalt’s paternal grandfather Paul Laxalt served as both governor and U.S. senator. This isn’t the first time Adam Laxalt has been opposed by family: When he ran successfully for attorney general in 2014, a number of family members wrote a letter endorsing his opponent.
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