Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine's (R.) campaign released a new television ad Wednesday knocking his predecessor, Democrat Richard Cordray, who he is running against to be Ohio's next governor.
The ad states that when DeWine took office as Attorney General in 2011, the state had 12,000 rape kits that had not been tested and that it was a priority of DeWine's tenure to test them all.
In the ad, titled "Untested," a woman named Alyssa Allison recounts how she was raped by a man at gunpoint before the narrator states what happened with thousands of rape kits.
"While Richard Cordray was attorney general, 12,000 rape kits like Alyssa’s were left untested," the narrator says. "Cordray’s failure left serial rapists free to strike again."
Cordray served as Ohio attorney general from January 2009 to January 2011 before he went to join the Obama administration as the first director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
"Then Mike DeWine became attorney general. He tested all 12,000 rape kits. Now hundreds of rapists are behind bars," the narrator says.
"Thanks to Mike DeWine, they found my rapist," Allison says. "Because of Mike DeWine, I’m not afraid anymore. It feels good not to be scared."
The rape kits processed during DeWine's time as attorney general amounted to 13,931 kits being examined and led to 300 offenders connected to over 1,100 crimes, DeWine said in February. He also rolled out a new system that allows victims to track their rape kits' information and status if they wish to.