Disputes that usually stay at the dinner table are spilling onto the fall campaign trail.
Six of Republican Rep. Paul Gosar’s siblings are urging Arizonans to vote him out of office in a new campaign ad posted on the internet by Mr. Gosar’s Democratic opponent, David Brill.
“We’ve got to stand up for our good name,” says David Gosar. Adds Tim Gosar, “It’s intervention time, and intervention time means that you go to vote. And you go to vote Paul out.”
The oldest of 10 siblings, Mr. Gosar won his first race in 2010 as part of the Tea Party wave and has sponsored legislation to eliminate citizenship for children born in the U.S. to undocumented immigrants. He is a fierce defender of President Trump, and his family’s reaction to Mr. Gosar’s health-care, immigration and social positions reflects the deep divides between Republicans and Democrats going into November’s elections.
“We are disturbed by what is going on in this country, and we are disturbed by our brother’s part in that,” David Gosar said in an interview Sunday. The family said nothing publicly during Mr. Gosar’s first seven years in office, but Mr. Trump has “emboldened extremism” to the point where others must speak up, even if it rattles family dynamics, David Gosar said.
Paul Gosar’s campaign didn’t respond to a request for comment. Cook Political Report has rated his seat as safe for Republicans.
Other candidates’ family disputes are also spilling into the open. The brother of Randy Bryce, the Democrat seeking House Speaker Paul Ryan’s seat in Wisconsin, cut an ad for a super PAC backing the Republican candidate Bryan Steil. Both Mr. Bryce’s and Mr. Gosar’s mothers have publicly backed their political sons.
Wisconsin GOP Senate primary candidate Kevin Nicholson saw his parents and brother give big contributions to Democratic Sen. Tammy Baldwin. Mr. Nicholson lost his primary to Leah Vukmir last month. Virginia Rep. Bob Goodlatte’s son used Twitter last month to say he was “deeply embarrassed” by his father’s conduct as chairman of the House Judiciary Committee. In another tweet, the younger Goodlatte shared the fundraising page for his father’s Democratic opponent.
Mr. Gosar struck back at his siblings in a series of tweets on Saturday. “My siblings who choose to film ads against me are all liberal Democrats who hate President Trump,” he wrote. “You can’t pick your family,” he wrote in another tweet, adding, “To the six angry Democrat Gosars—see you at Mom and Dad’s house!”
Most of the siblings who appear in the campaign ad reside in Wyoming, where the Gosar family is from.
Last year, seven Gosar siblings wrote an open letter accusing him of sounding an “anti-Semitic dog whistle” in his comments after a march of white supremacists in Charlottesville, Va. Soon after that, David Gosar started a Twitter account singularly devoted to calling out his brother, whom he frequently refers to as “Weasel.”
That all caught the attention of the Brill campaign. In mid-June, Jay Ruby, a campaign aide to Mr. Brill, cold called David Gosar to chat. A subsequent three-hour conversation led to calls with other family members. “We were willing to listen to them in a way that their own brother wasn’t,” Mr. Ruby said.
Mr. Ruby and David Gosar said no one was paid, and nothing was scripted.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/six-si...-appear-in-campaign-ad-against-him-1537736672
Six of Republican Rep. Paul Gosar’s siblings are urging Arizonans to vote him out of office in a new campaign ad posted on the internet by Mr. Gosar’s Democratic opponent, David Brill.
“We’ve got to stand up for our good name,” says David Gosar. Adds Tim Gosar, “It’s intervention time, and intervention time means that you go to vote. And you go to vote Paul out.”
The oldest of 10 siblings, Mr. Gosar won his first race in 2010 as part of the Tea Party wave and has sponsored legislation to eliminate citizenship for children born in the U.S. to undocumented immigrants. He is a fierce defender of President Trump, and his family’s reaction to Mr. Gosar’s health-care, immigration and social positions reflects the deep divides between Republicans and Democrats going into November’s elections.
“We are disturbed by what is going on in this country, and we are disturbed by our brother’s part in that,” David Gosar said in an interview Sunday. The family said nothing publicly during Mr. Gosar’s first seven years in office, but Mr. Trump has “emboldened extremism” to the point where others must speak up, even if it rattles family dynamics, David Gosar said.
Paul Gosar’s campaign didn’t respond to a request for comment. Cook Political Report has rated his seat as safe for Republicans.
Other candidates’ family disputes are also spilling into the open. The brother of Randy Bryce, the Democrat seeking House Speaker Paul Ryan’s seat in Wisconsin, cut an ad for a super PAC backing the Republican candidate Bryan Steil. Both Mr. Bryce’s and Mr. Gosar’s mothers have publicly backed their political sons.
Wisconsin GOP Senate primary candidate Kevin Nicholson saw his parents and brother give big contributions to Democratic Sen. Tammy Baldwin. Mr. Nicholson lost his primary to Leah Vukmir last month. Virginia Rep. Bob Goodlatte’s son used Twitter last month to say he was “deeply embarrassed” by his father’s conduct as chairman of the House Judiciary Committee. In another tweet, the younger Goodlatte shared the fundraising page for his father’s Democratic opponent.
Mr. Gosar struck back at his siblings in a series of tweets on Saturday. “My siblings who choose to film ads against me are all liberal Democrats who hate President Trump,” he wrote. “You can’t pick your family,” he wrote in another tweet, adding, “To the six angry Democrat Gosars—see you at Mom and Dad’s house!”
Most of the siblings who appear in the campaign ad reside in Wyoming, where the Gosar family is from.
Last year, seven Gosar siblings wrote an open letter accusing him of sounding an “anti-Semitic dog whistle” in his comments after a march of white supremacists in Charlottesville, Va. Soon after that, David Gosar started a Twitter account singularly devoted to calling out his brother, whom he frequently refers to as “Weasel.”
That all caught the attention of the Brill campaign. In mid-June, Jay Ruby, a campaign aide to Mr. Brill, cold called David Gosar to chat. A subsequent three-hour conversation led to calls with other family members. “We were willing to listen to them in a way that their own brother wasn’t,” Mr. Ruby said.
Mr. Ruby and David Gosar said no one was paid, and nothing was scripted.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/six-si...-appear-in-campaign-ad-against-him-1537736672
