EDF Action Votes Launches New TV Ad Featuring a Former Police Officer’s Outrage Over Candidate Yesli Vega’s Defense of January 6th Rioters
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(Washington, DC - September 6, 2022) Today, EDF Action Votes launched a $1 million campaign effort in the Virginia 7th Congressional race that features Bobby Mathieson, a former police officer of 25 years and retired U.S. Marshal of eight years, who sternly criticizes candidate Yesli Vega’s defense of January 6th rioters.
“Makes me Sick,” will run in the Washington DC media market on broadcast television for two weeks.
During a candidate forum, Vega claimed the January 6th rioters were “exercising their first Amendment Right[s]” and “as a result of doing that, they’ve been persecuted.” At least 140 police officers were injured in the riot, with 5 dying in the days and weeks following the event.
“Yesli Vega has no business in Congress. Vega’s words defending the rioters who stormed our Capitol makes it crystal clear that she is more interested in placating the extreme right rather than standing up for our democracy,” EDF Action Votes Communications Director Hannah Blatt said. “Everything we fight for depends on a healthy democracy. It’s clear that Virginians can’t trust Vega to put those values first.”
Bobby Mathieson has a distinguished career serving Virginians. He began his career as a police officer in the Virginia Beach Police Department where he served for over 25 years. Then in 2002, he served as Chief Deputy Director of the Department of Criminal Justice Services for the state of Virginia. In 2011, Mathieson was unanimously confirmed by the U.S. Senate to serve as a U.S. Marshal for the Eastern District of Virginia, which he did for eight years.
EDF Action and EDF Action Votes understand that a strong and healthy democracy is imperative to ensuring we can continue to make progress protecting our environment, safeguarding public health and tackling climate change head on. However, in the past few years, our country has seen numerous threats to a healthy democracy.
