Pro-DeSantis super PAC rolls out ad on border

Never Back Down, the super PAC supporting Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’s (R ) presidential bid, rolled out a new ad on Monday touting the governor’s stance on the southern border. 

The ad, titled “Warzone,” will start airing in the early contest states of Iowa and New Hampshire this week and is a part of a $25 million ad buy that was announced last month. The Hill was the first outlet to view the ad. 

“America’s border is a warzone,” the ad’s narrator says, highlighting “armed incursions, human trafficking, [and] death.”

“Open borders means every state, is a border state. Bringing crime where we live and lethal drugs in our schools,” the ad continues. “The only candidate fighting to secure our border now is the only candidate who served in a warzone: Ron DeSantis.” 

Republicans are increasingly seeking to go on offense over the border amid news stories about migrants crossing the border and being sent to cities governed by Democrats.

Some Democrats, including New York City Mayor Eric Adams, have criticized Republican governors like DeSantis for sending migrants to other cities, as well as the Biden administration for its handling of the border. 

Adams, whose city has received thousands of asylum-seekers for months, said earlier this month that the vast number of migrants being sent to the city will “destroy” it and has called for help from the federal government. 

DeSantis has been a frequent critic of the Biden administration on the matter and has said he would “100 percent” send the military to the border. 

“If there’s a woman with a baby, they’re not a cartel member. There’s not going to be authorization to just shoot somebody like that. But when somebody’s got a backpack on, and they’re breaking through the wall, you know that that’s hostile intent, and you have every right to take action under those circumstances,” DeSantis told CBS News last week.