As the Democratic National Convention gets under way in Charlotte Tuesday, where the party’s platform for the first time calls for marriage equality, a socially conservative super PAC is attacking President Obama for his support of same-sex marriage — a subject that has brought the house down when brought up on the convention floor in Charlotte.
Campaign for American Values, which is run by evangelical leader Gary Bauer, released a new ad Tuesday urging voters to support Mitt Romney because of Obama’s stance on gay marriage.
“Obama is trying to force gay marriage on this country,” a woman says in the ad. “That’s not the change I voted for. Marriage is between a man and a woman.”
The woman asks her husband in the ad, “What can we do?” He answers, “We can vote for someone with values.”
Open Secrets data shows that the group recently spent $47,250 on the ad and media buy. Campaign for American Values spokesperson Kristi Hamrick would not confirm that number but said that the ad buy was “significant,” and represented “only the beginning.”
“The Obama administration is very out of step with North Carolina voters,” on the issue of marriage, Hamrick said. The ad will run at least a week and the group is considering expanding the ad to other states.
The day before President Obama announced his support of same-sex marriage, a significant majority of North Carolina voters approved a constitutional ban on same-sex unions, showed the political risks Obama’s support entailed, particularly in the Tar Heel State. But polls following Obama’s endorsement have shown a shift toward support of gay marriage, including among wary black voters in North Carolina.
“Just hours after 61 percent of North Carolinians cast their ballots in support of normal marriage, Barack Obama insisted they were bigots when he publicly endorsed same-sex marriage,” Bauer said in a statement on the new ad. “It was a slap in the face to the good and decent people of North Carolina, whose state is hosting the Democratic National Convention this week.”
Following Obama’s lead, the Democratic Party this year embraced marriage equality and included it for the first time in its platform. “We support marriage equality and support the movement to secure equal treatment under law for same-sex couples,” the platform reads. “We also support the freedom of churches and religious entities to decide how to administer marriage as a religious sacrament without government interference.”
