The latest campaign ad against Wisconsin Democratic congressional candidate Randy Bryce features an unexpected critic: his brother James, who says in the ad that he is voting for his brother’s Republican opponent.
“When people refer to police officers as terrorists, that hits a little close to home,” James Bryce said in the ad posted on YouTube Tuesday. “I don’t think people want to be represented by someone who has shown contempt for those in law enforcement. That’s one of the many reasons why I’m voting Bryan Steil for Congress.”
James Bryce said in the video that he has been a police officer for 23 years. A 2012 tweet by Randy Bryce that appears to compare police officers to terrorists was shown for a few seconds in the background of the ad.
“When police become the terrorists -The Two-Pronged Assault on Dissent in Wisconsin’s Capitol,” he tweeted, linking an article from The Progressive.
When police become the terrorists -The Two-Pronged Assault on Dissent in Wisconsin’s Capitol | The Progressive http://t.co/VnLSa66f
— Randy Bryce (@IronStache) September 16, 2012
“FBI statistics show that assaults against law enforcement have gone up in the last few years,” James Bryce said in the ad. “From my perspective, this has been motivated in part by cop-hating rhetoric. I’ve been to three cops’ funerals in the last two years. Two were shot while trying to protect people from violent criminals.”
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Randy Bryce is running for the Wisconsin 1st Congressional District seat that House Speaker Paul Ryan will vacate when he retires in January. Ryan has endorsed Bryce’s opponent Steil.
The negative ad from Randy Bryce’s opponents shows the Republicans are feeling threatened, his campaign manager David Keith told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
“The Republicans are very scared because they know that this seat is prime for the taking and Randy Bryce is in a unique position to win it,” Keith told the MJS. “You don’t go negative if your numbers look good.”
The James Bryce ad was paid for by the Congressional Leadership Fund, a pro-Republican Super PAC. The Congressional Leadership Fund also plans to target Randy Bryce for his arrest record, reported the Milwaukee Sentinel Journal. Randy Bryce has gotten in trouble with the law for drunk driving and driving with a suspended license.
If Randy Bryce beats Steil, the district would revert to Democratic representation after 20 years of electing Ryan, according to the MJS.
Randy Bryce is nicknamed “Iron Stache” for both his mustache and personal history as an iron worker. (RELATED: US Tariffs Leave China Little Options That Aren’t ‘Playing Into Trump’s Hands’)
James Bryce even considered running for Congress when Ryan announced his retirement, reported the MJS.
Randy Bryce’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Daily Caller News Foundation.
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