CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Secretary of State Natalie Tennant, the Democratic U.S. Senate candidate, shuts off the power to the White House in the first television ad from a U.S. Senate candidate in West Virginia ahead of the November General Election.
“Where do they think their electricity comes from?” Tennant asks in the ad, called “Message.”
It was released Monday and can be seen here. In that ad, Tennant promises to protect coal jobs, along with U.S. Senator Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), and send a message to President Barack Obama about the importance of coal.
The Tennant campaign will spend more than $200,000 to run the ad during the next two weeks in more than 75 percent of West Virginia.
“I think it’s a very powerful ad that states exactly how she feels and how she’ll stand beside (U.S. Senator) Joe Manchin in Washington and fight for West Virginia coal jobs and the people of the state of West Virginia,” said Maj. Gen. Allen Tackett, retired state Adjutant General and campaign chair for the Natalie Tennant for U.S. Senate campaign.
“I’m proud to stand beside her,” Tackett said on Monday’s MetroNews “Talkline.”
But Amy Graham, spokesperson for Republican Congresswoman Shelley Moore Capito’s U.S. Senate campaign, said the ad was “hypocrisy” from Tennant. “Natalie Tennant helped send Obama to the White House in the first place,” Graham said.
“She nominated him for President in 2008, despite his promise to bankrupt coal. She supported him again in 2012 and she even went as far as to defend his war on coal, saying she didn’t see his anti-coal policies as getting rid of coal.”
On Monday’s MetroNews “Talkline,” Graham seemed to indicate there would be a response from the Capito campaign. “Voters are going to reminded very soon about Natalie Tennant’s support of President Obama and his anti-coal agenda. So, you’ll just have to stay tuned for that,” Graham said.
Up to this point, the Capito campaign has run radio ads.
Last week, The Washington Post reported the Senate Majority PAC was putting more than $200,000 into television ads attacking Capito in Clarksburg, Charleston and Beckley.
Election Day is Tuesday, Nov. 4.