Manipulation in the Mailbox

This year’s Florida Congressional District 16 race wasn’t supposed to be competitive. The RNC/RPOF worked to ensure there were no issues getting their candidate through in the primary. The State gerrymandered the district to ensure it stayed red in the general.

What they never anticipated was the Democratic voters selecting a competent, competitive, centrist candidate. They never anticipated fed up, conservative Republicans and independently-minded NPA’s not rolling over and blindly accepting their chosen candidate.

This wasn’t supposed to be a race where they had to spend their money and their time.

Fortunately for all the residents of CD16, they were wrong. We’ve been given another option, even if we haven’t been given debates, policy discussions or honesty.

They know Kelly Kirschner is the better candidate. They know an honest comparison would be detrimental to their campaign. They won’t allow that comparison to be brought to light if their money can push their own narrative.

I recently spoke about why I believe Kelly is the better candidate on The Bradenton Times’ podcast. (For the full podcast on Kelly and other topics, see the end of this post.)

They know Kelly has deep ties to all corners of the new, gerrymandered district. They know Kelly has an impressive, and sincere, resume of assisting his community. They know everything Kelly’s done has been altruistic and earned, not done strategically to build a resume for political gain. They know he is a common sense, thoughtful, moderate candidate who will have an independent voice in DC and will look out for every citizen of our district.

So they have decided to avoid honest comparison of policy and qualifications. Instead, they have resorted to manipulating voters. And that takes a lot of money.

Fortunately for them, direct ties to the RNC and blind allegiance to President Trump are very lucrative and allows for an unlimited pipeline of cash and hidden PAC funds to push their false narratives.

Above are the mailers I received in the span of four days last week. These are not attempting to explain honest policy differences. These are not even attempting to truthfully portray Kelly’s actual positions.

These are tired, predictable tropes. Fear-mongering on unsubstantiated culture war issues. These are such a stretch that the bottom mailer doesn’t even say Kelly supports this. It simply says “Kelly Kirschner is a Democrat whose party...”.

These scare-tactics go even further on television ads placed in the most expensive time slots unlimited funds can buy. These costly mailers and ads are being put out by a PAC hiding its backers by funneling its money through the candidate’s spouse’s own PAC.

They believe this fabricated messaging will be effective.

Not because it’s true.

But because they believe they can spend enough money to convince you, the voter, that it’s true.

They believe CD16 is xenophobic, transphobic, and homophobic. They believe you’re uninformed. They believe you’re not smart enough to see through their ploy to deceive you.

They believe, with enough money, they can manipulate and scare enough of you into voting AGAINST Kelly, rather than accepting that you’re intelligent enough to listen to real policy discussions to make your own, educated decisions.

They are disrespecting you and your intelligence and they think they’re getting away with it.

These lazy attack mailers and ads show just how little they think of you.

They are not spending their unlimited funds attempting to advocate FOR their candidate. They are not trying to convince you of merits or honest promises. They have chosen to spend all their money in the final days of an election trying to tear down Kelly with lies rather than advocate for their candidate with truths.

And that should tell you all you need to know about a candidate’s confidence in themselves.

They are spending MILLIONS conning you and scaring you so they can win the seat in congress they believe they deserve…while you’re struggling to pay for gas and groceries.

But they won’t talk about your gas and groceries.

Because, during the primaries, EVERY mailer had one theme. One qualification to convince Republican voters of their candidate’s suitability.

It was the “complete and total” endorsement from President Trump.

Eighteen mailer with over 30 pictures of Trump.

Since the primary? I’ve received ONE mailer. And there was, strangely, not a single picture of Trump.

Since the primary, there is no longer talk of the full support of tariffs that are driving up the prices of your groceries and goods, while increasing our interest rates due to constant inflation. No longer the vocal support of a war that has driven up your gas prices. No more justification of socialist policies allowing the government to take ownership stakes in private companies and interfere with the private markets.

Once the rural counties were added to CD16, there was no acknowledgement that these policies are causing the pain our family farms are feeling with high diesel prices, a loss of farm workers, and the elimination of markets for their products due to punitive tariffs and trade disruptions.

Just silence on President Trump and his policies that were so constantly and vocally cheered on until August 18.

The post-primary mailer simply said that she would lower costs. Which obviously can’t be stated with a straight face if you were still reminding voters of the “complete and total” loyalty you committed to the President’s policies once that endorsement was cashed in during the primary.

But they have the funds and the resources to change the narrative to suit the moment. Now they just hope 51% of you fall for it.

As a voter, you should be sick and tired of the nonstop, AI-generated attack ads, lies and endless money in politics working against you, your families, and your communities.

We’re seeing individuals and PACs flooding your airwaves, your texts, and your mailboxes to buy elections. We see it in the Florida Governor’s race. We see it in other statewide races across the country. We even see it locally in smaller races like Councilwoman Lisa Gonzalez Moore’s race, where virtually 100% of her opponent’s campaign is being funded and coordinated out of Tallahassee by people who don’t have the residents of the City of Bradenton as their number one priority.

And we’re definitely seeing it in the Florida Congressional District 16 race.

But you still have a week until Election Day.

Turn off the tv ads. Mute your texts. Throw away the false mailers funded to deceive you.

Go out and do your own research.

Go to KellyKirschner.com and see what he has to say. (Spoiler, it has nothing to do with transgender surgery or drag queens.)

Or, even better, come on out to Cortez Village in Manatee County on Friday, Oct 30 and ask him your questions directly!

It’s free!

Unlike those costly flyers flooding your mailbox to insult your intelligence.