An Arizona candidate for Congress has sent out a mailer displaying the image of Trayvon Martin to attack her opponent’s record as a state lawmaker.
Mary Rose Wilcox used the mailer to slam her opponent, Ruben Gallego, in the Democratic primary for Arizona’s 7th Congressional District in Phoenix, according to The Arizona Republic, which posted a copy of it.
“America doesn’t need more Trayvon Martin tragedies,” the mailer reads, underneath a portrait of Martin in a hoodie. On the next page it lists Gallego’s support for “Stand Your Ground” legislation and what it describes as his B+ record from the National Rifle Association.
Gallego called the mailer “extreme” and another candidate, the Rev. Jarrett Maupin, has denounced the connection to Martin as “outrageous.”
A spokesperson for Gallego said Wilcox’s mailer ignores the candidate’s full record on gun control, such as his votes against guns in schools and other public areas.
Wilcox’s campaign, however, didn’t back down.
“Ruben Gallego’s vote to make it easier for gunmen to use deadly force and claim self-defense is just the kind of law that fosters tragedies like the Trayvon Martin case,” said Wilcox’s spokesman Sam Castañeda Holdren.
