The National Rifle Association Political Victory Fund launched its first ad backing presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump on Wednesday.
The ad will run nationally on both cable and local broadcast stations in a number of battleground states, including Colorado, Florida, Maine, Nevada, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Virginia. The NRA said it would be spending $2 million dollars on the initial campaign. Hillary Clinton’s campaign up to this point has spent $26 million in battleground state ads while the Trump campaign has not made any ad buys.
The NRA said the ad buy was necessary to help ensure that Clinton does not become president.
"We cannot trust Hillary Clinton with our gun rights or our national security," Chris Cox, chairperson of the NRA fund, said in a statement. "The stakes in this election for law-abiding gun owners have never been higher, and the NRA will use all available resources to ensure that voters understand the consequences of a Hillary Clinton presidency on their fundamental right of self-defense.
"By saying that the Supreme Court got it wrong in the historic Heller decision," Cox continued, "Hillary made it clear that she does not believe Americans have the right to keep a gun in their home to protect themselves."
The ad features Mark Geist, a retired Marine and CIA security contractor who was involved in the 2012 Benghazi operation where four Americans were killed, telling people to vote this November to keep Hillary Clinton from becoming president.
"A lot of people say they’re not gonna vote this November because their candidate didn’t win," Geist said in the ad while walking through a cemetery. "Well, I know some people who won’t be voting this year either."
"Hillary as president? No thanks," he added.
Geist goes on to say that those he served with in Benghazi did their part and it is time for other Americans to do theirs.
"I served in Benghazi," he said. "My friends didn’t make it."
"They did their part. Do yours," Geist said.