CANTON, Ohio — As Ohio’s 2022 U.S. Senate race heats up, Republican candidate Jane Timken is releasing her third television ad.
Entitled “$15,000,” the 30-second spot criticizes Democrats in New York for “giving $15,000 checks to illegal immigrants” impacted by the pandemic.
“I’m running for the Senate to stop this insanity and advance the America First agenda,” Timken, the former chair of the Ohio Republican Party, says in the ad.
As The New York Times recently explained, state lawmakers in New York recently approved a measure that “will now offer one-time payments of up to $15,600 to undocumented immigrants who lost work during the pandemic” as part of the state budget.
“Undocumented workers could receive up to $15,600, the equivalent of $300 per week for the last year,” the Times report outlined, “if they can verify that they were state residents, ineligible for federal unemployment benefits and lost income as a result of the pandemic.”
In Timken’s ad, she criticizes “Biden and Pelosi” for giving “New York a billion-dollar bailout,” referring to the recent coronavirus relief package that Congress passed, which included billions for state and local governments.
The program New York lawmakers approved does not utilize federal COVID-19 relief dollars — it instead uses state funds. But critics argue it will end up forcing lawmakers to fill funding gaps with the pandemic relief money that will be created by the state funds going to this “Excluded Workers Fund.”
“Like President Trump, I fight tough and I never back down,” Timken says in the ad, while also promising to fight illegal immigration and finish construction of a wall on the southern border.
Timken’s ad — her second about immigration — is the latest example of the growing Republican field in Ohio’s Senate race catering to former President Donald Trump and his base.
Trump won Ohio twice by eight points, and though he’s no longer in office, his presence looms large over the GOP primary to succeed retiring Sen. Rob Portman.
Timken is one of four Republican candidates — former Ohio State Treasurer Josh Mandel, investment banker Mike Gibbons, and luxury car dealer Bernie Moreno are the other three — already in the race and each of them has made trips to Florida to meet with Trump.
Current Congressmen Mike Turner and Bill Johnson and author J.D. Vance are also considering jumping in.
Though primary day is a year out, the GOP race is already proving to be expensive.
Timken has loaned her campaign $1 million and Gibbons has pledged to spend $5 million of his own wealth on the race.
On the Democratic side, Northeast Ohio Congressman Tim Ryan launched his own campaign on Monday.