WASHINGTON _ Sen. Rob Portman is appealing to Ohio coal miners in a new ad released Tuesday.
The minute-long television ad will go on the air in southeast Ohio from now until Election Day, according to Portman's campaign. The ad is part of a $14 million statewide ad reservation that the Ohio Republican's campaign announced in May.
In the latest ad, Portman ties his Democratic opponent, former Gov. Ted Strickland, to Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton and President Barack Obama.
The ad opens with shots of Obama and Clinton, including a clip of Clinton from a March town hall, saying, "We are going to put a lot of coal miners and coal companies out of business." Clinton later apologized for the comment.
The Portman campaign cited Strickland's work for the left-leaning Center for American Progress as evidence that he is anti-coal.
"Ted Strickland has turned his back on us," a miner in the ad says. "Like a turncoat, he sided with Barack and Hillary when he went to Washington."
Portman's campaign has appealed to coal miners through three radio ads. Last week, Portman traversed Strickland's former congressional district, visiting a coal mine there with GOP Sen. Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia.
The Koch brothers-backed Freedom Partners Action Fund went up with an ad last week that used the same Clinton sound bite in an anti-Strickland ad.
Portman was endorsed by the United Mine Workers in June.
