Black lawmakers call for probe of GOP House candidate over campaign ad with wrong election date

By Annie Grayer and Alison Main, CNN

(CNN) — Black state lawmakers in Michigan have called on the state’s attorney general and a county prosecutor to investigate Tom Barrett, a GOP candidate for the US House, over a newspaper advertisement in a Black-owned newspaper that listed the wrong date for Election Day.

The complaint from the Michigan Legislative Black Caucus alleges that the Barrett campaign potentially violated state law with the printing of an ad in the Michigan Bulletin, a Black-owned publication serving Lansing, that tells voters to vote on November 6, when Election Day is on November 5.

Ingham County prosecutor John DeWane confirmed to CNN that his office had received the complaint and had referred it to the Michigan Bureau of Elections.

Barrett faces Democrat Curtis Hertel in a competitive race to succeed Democratic Rep. Elissa Slotkin in the 7th Congressional District in Central Michigan. Slotkin, who is running for US Senate, defeated Barrett by 5 points two years ago. House Republicans are eyeing at least two pickup opportunities in Michigan as they look to defend their narrow majority, including the race for Slotkin’s seat, which Inside Elections with Nathan L. Gonzales rates a Toss-up.

Barrett campaign spokesman Jason Roe called the mistaken election date “nothing but a proofing error.”

“Our campaign has been committed to outreach to the Black community and Black leaders because it is important to Senator Barrett that every community be heard in this election,” Roe said. “The publisher of the Bulletin notified us of the error on Saturday and we’ve provided him with revised art for next week’s issue.”

Marcus Jefferson, the president of the Michigan Bulletin, told CNN that he reached out to Barrett’s team after the issue had been raised to him and the campaign told him they had used an old template that had been used for Michigan’s August 6 primary.

The ad, which ran in the October 1 edition of the paper, was the first ad that Barrett had run in the Michigan Bulletin, according to Jefferson.

“I’ve been getting it from all sides,” he said about the reaction to the incorrect ad. Jefferson said he’s been telling his readers, “I’m not in the business of misinforming my readership.”

The campaign pointed to other mailers sent to Black voters that have the correct date for Election Day.

But Democratic state Sens. Erika Geiss and Sarah Anthony, who filed the complaint on behalf of the Michigan Legislative Black Caucus, said the fact that Barrett’s ad has the correct date in other publications raises even more concerns and that, as of Sunday, it did not appear that the mistake had been corrected with the Michigan Bulletin.

“At best, Tom Barrett and his Campaign have committed a shocking oversight which will undoubtedly lead to confusion by Black voters in Lansing – in part because they still do not appear to have made any attempt to correct the record,” the lawmakers wrote. “And, at worst, this ad could be part of an intentional strategy to ‘deter’ Black voters by deceiving them into showing up to vote on the day after the 2024 election.”

Jefferson said he will be printing a new, corrected version of Barrett’s ad in the next edition of the paper on Wednesday. That paper will also feature an ad purchased by Hertel’s campaign.

CNN has reached out to the Michigan attorney general’s office for comment.

Slotkin defeated Barrett to win the central Michigan district by just 5 points in 2022.

Republicans in Michigan have been making appeals to minority groups, including Black voters, in an effort to cut into margins among communities that typically comprise the Democratic base.

Barrett has been meeting with Black community leaders in the Lansing area, and former President Donald Trump attended a roundtable at a Black church in Detroit in June.

The Michigan GOP also ran a radio ad last month featuring Detroit’s former Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, whose sentence for federal criminal charges was commuted by Trump as one of his last acts in office.

Kilpatrick endorsed Trump earlier this year and talks about supporting the former president in the ad in the interest of “the survival of our nation.”

This story has been updated with additional reporting

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