Republican presidential candidate Jeb Bush’s campaign is releasing a new TV ad spotlighting his latest attack strategy against front-runner Donald Trump for mocking a reporter with a disability.
The 60-second spot, “Enough,” will run as part of the campaign’s rotating ad buy in New Hampshire ahead of the state’s first-in-the-nation primary next month.
“Anybody (who) disparages people with disabilities, it sets me off,” Bush is seen saying in the new ad, which uses footage from a town hall in New Hampshire last week.
From the beginning of his campaign, Bush has made his record of fighting for people with disabilities as major part of his pitch. He regularly tells the story of working with the Republican legislature when he was governor of Florida to secure millions of dollars for people with disabilities.
When Bush came into office in 1999, his state was facing lawsuits from people with disabilities that weren’t receiving services and Florida’s Medicaid system was on the verge of being taken over by a federal court.
The state spent more money on the program and dramatically cut down on the waiting list for services, though PolitiFact reports that the issue was one that Bush continued to face in his two terms in Tallahassee, as demands grew for services.
Still, Bush won praise from some Democrats for his attention to the issue, including the mother of a woman who’s featured in the ad.
Berthy De La Rosa-Aponte, previously a Democrat, has a her daughter with a developmental disability. She confronted Bush during his 1998 gubernatorial campaign, and now Bush regularly credits her with raising his awareness about problems that such families face.
Bush tells her story in his stump speech. Aponte helped introduce him at his announcement in June and joined him on the trail in New Hampshire as a surrogate last fall.
The former governor’s passion on the topic has not only become the final selling point in his stump speech, but it’s also become his latest affront against Trump. Bush first blasted Trump as a “jerk” last month, but has been doubling down on it in recent days.
“I don’t apologize for it because he is a jerk,” Bush said Tuesday at a campaign stop in Grinnell, Iowa, saying Trump “disparages” women, POWs, Hispanics, Muslims and people with disabilities. “How are we going to win the presidency if we’re tearing our country apart?”
And it appears his offensive is winning over some voters. The new ad includes an interview with Tim Dyar, whose 12-year-old son Breylen has cerebral palsy. After seeing Trump mock the reporter — something Trump denies doing — Dyar went online to find out how he could help Bush’s campaign.
Last week Dyar opened up his diner in Pendleton, South Carolina, to let Bush host a town hall.
“That just made me so angry and I told my wife I couldn’t let that stand. I had to do something to make sure Donald Trump wasn’t the nominee for the Republican Party,” Dyar says in the new ad.
The latest ad is the second released by the campaign this week to show a more compassionate side of Bush, who’s struggling in his poll numbers. On Wednesday, the campaign put out an ad, “Recovery,” that shows Bush talking about his daughter’s former drug addiction.