Will Negative Ads In Heated District 16 Congressional Race Sway Voters?

Television viewers are seeing many negative ads lately aimed at the leading democratic candidates for the 16th congressional district.With early voting underway and the May 29th election date looming, ABC-7 looked into the causes and effects of those ads.

Five democrats are running in the primary, including Ben Mendoza, Paul Johnson and Jerome Tilghman. However, the negative ads focus on the front-runners: incumbent Silvestre Reyes and challenger Beto O’Rourke.

Dr. Richard Pineda, a professor at the University of Texas at El Paso, weighed in on how voters might react to the aggressive tone some ads have taken on.

“I don’t necessarily know it will inspire voters to come out. (The ads could) inspire anger and personal sensitivity,” said Pineda.

Both Reyes and O’Rourke have come out with television spots criticizing each other’s integrity and/or character, though both have told ABC-7 during interviews they wished their election campaigns could just be focused on issues.

Watch video of the full report for more on how Super Political Action Committees may be influencing this race.