{"id":901329,"date":"2026-10-31T18:26:14","date_gmt":"2026-10-31T18:26:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/901329\/"},"modified":"2026-10-31T18:26:14","modified_gmt":"2026-10-31T18:26:14","slug":"ads-accusing-republican-candidates-of-protecting-epstein-fill-airwaves-in-final-midterm-push-us-midterm-elections-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/901329\/","title":{"rendered":"Ads accusing Republican candidates of protecting Epstein fill airwaves in final midterm push | US midterm elections 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

In races across the country, Democratic candidates or groups that support them have released ads accusing Republicans<\/a> of protecting pedophiles by voting against legislation to release files related to Jeffrey Epstein<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The ads appear intended to evoke an emotional response <\/a>by accusing candidates of \u201cprotecting\u201d Epstein, a notorious pedophile accused of running a sex-trafficking ring involving minors.<\/p>\n

An analysis from CNN<\/a> found that candidates and outside groups have spent more than $35m on Epstein-related ads. Another from the Washington Post<\/a> found that Democrats spent more than $40m on Epstein-related ads across six key Senate races.<\/p>\n

In Colorado, ads targeting Republican Jeff Crank<\/a> note that the lawmaker voted against releasing the Epstein files. In one<\/a>, the family members of Virginia Giuffre, a woman who survived abuse at the hands of Epstein and died by suicide last year, claim Crank \u201ccovered up Epstein\u2019s crimes to protect Donald Trump\u201d.<\/p>\n

Ashley Hinson, a Senate candidate in Iowa, was accused<\/a> of voting to \u201cprotect her donors\u201d by refusing to vote to release the Epstein files.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis week I had to explain to my boys, \u2018No, Mom does not protect pedophiles,\u2019\u201d Hinson said in a campaign ad<\/a> responding to attacks over the Epstein files.<\/p>\n

An ad targeting Mike Collins<\/a>, the Republican running for a Georgia Senate seat, says \u201cMike Collins voted against releasing the Epstein files even after he knew Epstein\u2019s sex-trafficking operation exploited 14-year-old girls for sex\u201d.<\/p>\n

Florida Republican Jimmy Patronis faced an attack<\/a> from his Democratic opponent, claiming he called investigating Epstein \u201ca waste of his time\u201d.<\/p>\n

A spokesperson for Crank\u2019s campaign accused the Epstein-related ad of being \u201cintentionally vague\u201d, in a statement to the Washington Post,<\/a> because his position was that he would vote against the file\u2019s release until he could be confident that victim information was properly redacted. The campaign also said it was \u201cunfortunate\u201d that his opponent, Jessica Killin, was \u201cpreying on a grieving family with the help of the Washington Democrats\u201d.<\/p>\n

Crank\u2019s staff invited and met with Giuffre\u2019s family, though Crank himself did not meet with them in person, the New York Times reported.<\/a> Crank\u2019s campaign also said it offered to meet with Epstein victims before the vote on the legislation.<\/p>\n

Last year, Democrats and a select few House Republicans<\/a> tried to force a vote on the Epstein files through a discharge petition \u2013 a procedure used in Congress to bypass the traditional steps of legislation and force a vote on the House floor.<\/p>\n

Donald Trump, who knew Epstein in the 1990s<\/a> and early 2000s, opposed the discharge petition for the files, reversing his campaign promise<\/a> to increase government transparency. House Republicans largely aligned themselves with him, prompting anger from high-profile Trump voters.<\/p>\n

Eventually, under pressure from allies, Trump supported the legislation, giving Republican lawmakers the go-ahead to vote for it. All but one House Republican voted for the Epstein Files Transparency Act.<\/p>\n

Many of the ads omit the fact that nearly every House Republican voted to release the Epstein files when the Epstein Files Transparency Act came to the floor, although at that point Trump had agreed to sign the legislation and release the files. Instead, the ads refer to Republicans opposing early attempts to force the legislation to the floor.<\/p>\n

Republicans have pointed to this fact when disputing the attack ads.<\/p>\n

skip past newsletter promotion<\/a>Free newsletter |Around 2-3 times a day<\/p>\n

Sign up to Breaking News US<\/p>\n

Get the most important news as it breaks<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\u201cOf course I voted to release the Epstein files,\u201d Hinson said in a direct-to-camera ad, accusing her opponent, Josh Turek, of lying. While Hinson voted for the final Epstein Files Transparency Act, she did not sign on to the discharge petition.<\/p>\n

Patronis, meanwhile, never called the investigation a \u201cwaste of time\u201d, but told a local radio station<\/a> that while he had \u201cno problem getting everything all released\u201d, the issue was a \u201cmassive energy and time suck at the end of the day\u201d.<\/p>\n

Melissa Stone, a spokesperson for Patronis\u2019s campaign, highlighted his work with Trump to obtain disaster funding after Hurricane Isaias and said his opponent, Gay Valimont, was \u201cstill talking about a dead pedophile in a sad web video than helping the people of [the first congressional district] recover.\u201d<\/p>\n

Some Republicans and groups supporting the GOP have sought to flip the script, accusing Democrats<\/a> of taking money from donors who had ties to Epstein.<\/p>\n

During a Georgia Senate debate, Collins accused his opponent, Jon Ossoff, of accepting campaign donations from Reid Hoffman, a tech billionaire who had ties to Epstein. Hoffman has said<\/a> he only knew Epstein through fundraising relationships and regrets it.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can claim to fight against the Epstein class, but I\u2019m going to tell you, this call is coming from inside the house and the Epstein class is on stage right now and it\u2019s you,\u201d Collins said<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In New Mexico\u2019s gubernatorial race, an outside group released an ad<\/a> accusing Democratic candidate Deb Haaland of accepting a ride on Epstein\u2019s private jet and taking \u201ctens of thousands of dollars from Epstein businesses\u201d and then \u201casking for more\u201d.<\/p>\n

Haaland did not fly on Epstein\u2019s jet, but did take a flight booked by one of Epstein\u2019s companies in 2014. Haaland has said<\/a> she was unaware the chartered flight was owned by an Epstein-owned company.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In races across the country, Democratic candidates or groups that support them have released ads accusing Republicans of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":901330,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[23,3,21,19,22,20,25,24],"class_list":["post-901329","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-states","tag-america","tag-news","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/901329","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=901329"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/901329\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/901330"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=901329"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=901329"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=901329"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}