Missouri Republican’s TV ad, called racist, uses Spanish translator to vow deportation

A TV ad by a Missouri Republican candidate for governor promising to deport migrants that includes a Spanish translator and western-themed music was swiftly condemned Wednesday as racist.

The ad, a direct-to-camera message from Sen. Bill Eigel, marks an audacious play to direct attention toward his campaign in the final days before the Aug. 6 primary election. The message also brings to the forefront fears about immigration, a potent issue among Missouri Republicans this year.

In the 30-second ad released on Tuesday, Eigel and an unidentified Hispanic-looking man stand in front of an American flag backdrop as on-screen text says the ad is a “message for illegal immigrants.” Eigel promises to crack down on illegal immigration and says he’s “throwing them in jail” and “sending them back where they came from.”

The unidentified man acts as a translator, but includes flourishes, at one point saying “the party is over” in Spanish. When Eigel says migrants will be sent back, the man puts his hands on his head in exasperation.

Eigel, of Weldon Spring, has attempted to cast himself as the most conservative Republican in a race that also includes Lt. Gov. Mike Kehoe and Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft. Eigel built a reputation in the Missouri Senate as a caustic presence who frequently filibustered legislation and criticized GOP leaders as insufficiently conservative.

In the Republican governor’s race, Eigel was once seen as a likely third-place finisher but has performed better in recent polls, which show a tight race. One poll conducted in late June put Eigel in 2nd place, roughly 4 percentage points behind Kehoe.

All three major GOP candidates have made illegal immigration a key campaign issue, though Eigel has used the most extreme rhetoric, vowing mass deportations despite the fact that the federal government is largely responsible for immigration enforcement and Missouri officials cannot unilaterally force individuals to leave the United States.

Missourians ‘upset’ by ad

Kehoe said in an interview with The Star on Wednesday that he had heard from Missourians offended by Eigel’s ad.

“I just had one of our firefighters tell me how upset he was about that ad,” Kehoe said after a campaign event in Blue Springs, which included firefighters supportive of the lieutenant governor.

Kehoe said that in Sedalia on Tuesday, “I had a member of the Hispanic community tell me how upset they were.”

“Look, Sen. Eigel is trying to do anything he can to get coverage and the more people start telling him – calling it racist or whatever they’re going to call it – he gets to get more media coverage,” Kehoe said. “So this is his way of getting his name out there in the earned media world.”

Ashcroft’s campaign didn’t immediately comment on the ad.

Missouri House Minority Leader Crystal Quade, a Springfield Democrat running for governor, said on social media that the state needs a leader who will unite, not divide, residents.

“Our state can’t succeed and attract businesses and a talented workforce with leaders running on racist bigotry,” Quade wrote.

The Eigel campaign appeared pleased with the ad, issuing a news release on Wednesday boasting about views of the video and highlighting Quade’s condemnation.

Eigel’s campaign, asked to respond to the criticism of the ad, said in a statement that Kehoe “sounds just like the liberal he is.” The campaign referred to comments by Kehoe in an interview with KMOV in St. Louis where he critiqued Eigel’s call for mass deportations.

“While Mike Kehoe plays the liberals’ game, accusing anyone he doesn’t like of racism, Bill Eigel is running on conservative policy and results,” Eigel campaign spokesperson Zeke Spieker said in a statement.

The Star asked Kehoe whether he thought the ad was racist; he responded by pointing to the comments of others offended by the ad.

GOP targets Illegal immigration

The Missouri Republican primary for governor and other statewide races have been awash in rhetoric about migrants. The stakes are high for the Kansas City region, which has been a center of migrant arrivals in Missouri over the past decade, according to U.S. immigration court data analyzed by The Washington Post.

Some 8,300 migrants have settled in Jackson County since 2014, with 37% coming from Honduras. That’s more than the 7,326 migrants who have settled in St. Louis and St. Louis County over that same period.

Three-fourths of voters say the situation along the U.S.-Mexico border is a crisis that must be resolved immediately, according to a February poll conducted by Saint Louis University and YouGov. Crucially, 97% of Republican voters agreed it’s a crisis.

Gov. Mike Parson deployed Missouri National Guard soldiers earlier this year to aid Texas, which has promoted a plan dubbed “Operation Lone Star” that uses Texas state resources to combat illegal border crossings.

Parson, who will term out of office in January, heavily promoted the deployment, even though he ultimately vetoed funding to continue it.