GOP senator caught using video of Pennsylvania town to brag about her state of Nebraska
A Republican senator, facing an unusually competitive race, whipped up a campaign ad to express her pride over her state of Nebraska. Only one problem — the footage she used was from Pennsylvania.
"Nebraska is a great place to raise families, and I've worked hard to keep it that way," said Sen. Deb Fischer's (R-NE) voice in the ad, over aerial footage of a town square with an American flag flying in the center.
But sharp-eyed people on social media immediately were skeptical that the footage was of Nebraska, with some speculating it was somewhere in the Northeast. And it turned out it was — specifically, she has used stock footage of the town of Manheim in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania.
This marks the latest in a series of awkward missteps by Fischer, who has not faced a competitive election in decades and is now polling in a near dead heat with her opponent, veteran and machinist Dan Osborn.
Nebraska is a firmly Republican-favoring state and rarely hosts competitive contests on a national scale, outside of its congressional district in Omaha which, thanks to the state's special rules, can choose its own presidential elector separately.
Osborn, however, is an independent who has declined to campaign with or commit to caucusing with Democrats, and has run on a mix of liberal and conservative policies — for example, supporting labor rights while taking a hard line on border security.
Fischer also stirred up controversy recently by seeming to imply that Sen. Angus King (I-ME) had endorsed her when he had in fact not done so — although her campaign team insists she did not imply this.