A New Jersey Democrat admonished his Republican challenger for singling him out in a campaign ad as not being “one of us."
Rep. Andy Kim, who is Asian American and represents the Garden State’s Third Congressional District, reached out publicly to his challenger, Tricia Flanagan, about the language of a recent social media ad on Tuesday morning.
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“I am writing to press you to stop saying ‘He is not one of us,’” he wrote in a tweet. “I’ve heard these hurtful words many times as an Asian American and your use in a campaign for Congress disrespects me and many AAPIs.”
Tricia @newdayfornj, I am writing to press you to stop saying “He is not one of us” in campaign attack ads against me. I’ve heard these hurtful words many times as an Asian American and your use in a campaign for Congress disrespects me and many AAPIs. You and I haven’t…THREAD pic.twitter.com/Xi7EQyukcc
— Andy Kim (@AndyKimNJ) July 20, 2021
Noting he has not met his opponent, Kim explained he wasn’t going “to immediately assume the worst" that the comment was about his Asian ethnicity. Rather, he said he is "hoping that you said these words without understanding the deeper pain they bring to me and many Asian Americans. The words try to paint me as an ‘other.’”
Flanagan characterized Kim’s thread about the language used in the ad as a “slanderous, race-baiting tantrum,” and she claimed his “race-card attack proves” that she’s “winning.”
It's time to take the Speaker's gavel out of Nancy Pelosi's tyrannical hands for good.
— Tricia Flanagan (R-NJ) (@NewDayForNJ) July 15, 2021
We need patriots who put FREEDOM & America FIRST.
Help me fight for YOUR freedom and take OUR country back ➡️ https://t.co/qAZI3T0ZgS pic.twitter.com/ls0ch6wzPQ
“Isn’t America divided enough on race without you trying to divide us more? You’re an outsider because you’re a socialist,” she added. “It’s that simple.”
In an additional response, Flanagan called the Twitter thread “a desperate attempt to raise money off my new campaign video … Andy Kim is an outsider because he’s a socialist.”
Andy Kim is playing the race card in a desperate attempt to raise money off my new campaign video that calls out every one of his failures.
— Tricia Flanagan (R-NJ) (@NewDayForNJ) July 20, 2021
Andy Kim is an outsider because he’s a socialist. He’s bad for America because he’ll do whatever his Biden & Pelosi overlords tell him to.
This comes as the number of hate crimes against Asian Americans increased substantially during the first part of 2021 amid the coronavirus pandemic.
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Hate crime data show 86 attacks against Asian Americans in the first quarter of 2021 in 15 of the largest cities and counties, compared to 32 during the same time last year, demonstrating a 169% increase to this year’s total, according to a report released at the end of April by the Center for the Study of Hate & Extremism at California State University, San Bernardino.
Experts have suggested a possible connection between the spread of COVID-19, which originated in Wuhan, China, and the increase in hate crimes directed at the Asian American community.