Hageman releases first paid campaign ad

Victoria Eavis Casper Star-Tribune Via Wyoming News Exchange
Posted 12/8/21

CASPER — Harriet Hageman, the Donald Trump-endorsed candidate in the U.S. House race against Rep. Liz Cheney, released her first paid ad of the campaign Wednesday as she ramps up her effort to unseat Wyoming’s lone congresswoman.

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Hageman releases first paid campaign ad

Posted

CASPER — Harriet Hageman, the Donald Trump-endorsed candidate in the U.S. House race against Rep. Liz Cheney, released her first paid ad of the campaign Wednesday as she ramps up her effort to unseat Wyoming’s lone congresswoman.

The ad, titled “Ride for the Brand,” features ranchers, the candidate’s brother Hugh Hageman, and Hageman herself.

The ad will run on Facebook and elsewhere online. The campaign said it is not releasing the cost of the ad buy.

“Cheney doesn’t Ride for the Brand; she has instead joined Democrat Nancy Pelosi and the radical liberals in their relentless war on President Donald Trump,” the press release on the ad states. “Hageman, in contrast, will stand by Wyoming when she is elected.”

Wyoming became the first state with an official state code, “The Code of the West,” in 2010. The code has 10 tenets, one of which is “ride for the brand,” which means putting the welfare of your group above personal gain.

Hageman herself doesn’t appear until the end of the video, where she can be seen walking on expansive rural landscape.

“Right now, the most important job Republicans have in Washington, D.C. is to stop Nancy Pelosi and the radical Democrats from destroying our country,” she says. “I’m Harriet Hageman, and I know what it means to ride for the brand.”

Hugh Hageman repeated a phrase that the Hageman campaign and the candidate herself has been repeating frequently, “Wyoming is in our DNA.” This tagline is a nod to the longtime criticism that Cheney is a “carpetbagger,” as she has spent much of her life in Northern Virginia. However, she did live in Casper for part of her childhood and now lives in Teton County.

The spot also targets Cheney directly in a number of spots.

“Instead of fighting for us, she’s fighting against President Trump. She betrayed us. She betrayed our values. She betrayed the brand,” one of the ranchers said as the video zoomed in on Pelosi’s picks for the Jan. 6 select committee, which features Cheney as the only Republican in a group of Democrats.

But Cheney is not the only Republican on the committee — Illinois Rep. Adam Kinzinger was also appointed to the panel by Pelosi. The panel is investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, which resulted in Cheney’s vote to impeach president Trump. Cheney maintains Trump bears responsibility for inciting the riot, which took place as Congress was certifying the election for now President Joe Biden.

The ad also features a screen grab of Cheney fist-bumping Biden, an image that has been used widely by those looking to unseat the incumbent.

The Facebook ad is not surprising for a Trump-endorsed candidate. Trump was known for his deft use of social media while campaigning.

As of the last day of September, the Hageman campaign had raised roughly $300,000, three weeks after announcing her candidacy. At the time, the campaign had roughly $244,000 left in the bank.

Cheney, on the other hand, has much more cash at her disposal to pour into advertising. The campaign finished the last quarter with $3.6 million in cash on hand.