Navy Vet Joe Collins Attacks Maxine Waters’ Mansion in Campaign Ad
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U.S. Navy veteran Joe Collins, a Republican who is running to unseat Democrat Maxine Waters, has released a new campaign ad attacking the California congresswoman for living in a multimillion-dollar mansion outside of her district, which is one of the state’s poorest.
“Do you know where I am right now? Maxine Waters’ six million-dollar mansion,” Collins says in the new video ad. “Do you know where I’m not right now? Maxine Waters’ district.”
“Maxine does not live in her district, but I do,” Collins adds.
Do you know where I am?
Maxine Waters’ $6 Million Mansion.Do you know where I’m NOT?
Her District.Mansion Maxine Waters doesn’t live in her District — I do.
My name is Joe Collins and I’m running for Congress against Maxine Waters.
Help Me WIN: https://t.co/K4OcfhUR0E pic.twitter.com/GgnmvSWSq9
— Joe E. Collins III For Congress CA-43 (@joecollins43rd) October 10, 2020
Waters lives in a $6 million house that was located in her district until redistricting caused it to now be located in California’s 37th District, which is represented by Democratic Rep. Karen Bass.
Waters has represented California’s 43rd District since 1991. Before she was elected to Congress, Waters had been a member of the California State Assembly since 1976.
The poverty rate is at least 22 percent in Waters’s district, with more than 161,000 people living below the poverty line.
Collins goes on in his campaign ad to describe his upbringing in South Los Angeles, where he says he survived a drive-by shooting outside his house when he was a child.
“Gangs, drugs, violence, that was my upbringing. And where was Maxine Waters?” Collins says.
“While I was fighting for this country, Maxine Waters could not be bothered to fight for her own district here in America. And when I returned from war, I came back to my community as a war zone,” continues Collins, who served 13 years in the Navy and fought in the Iraq War.
Collins outlined some of his priorities for change in the district, including combatting the lack of quality education, gang activity, the sky-high crime rate, and homelessness.
In recent years, Waters has been outspoken about her opposition to the Trump administration, at one point encouraging her supporters to harass administration officials if they spot them in public. She was also one of the loudest voices calling for the president’s impeachment.
