A new ad from Rep. Todd Rokita has everything: AR-15s and F-150s, rioting protestors and a kneeling Colin Kaepernick, support for making English the official language of the U.S., and an exhortation to build the border wall.

It’s a love letter to President Trump supporters cut up as a 30-second clip, and it embodies the Trumpian red meat that has fueled Rokita’s campaign.



The Indiana Republican is challenging Democratic Sen. Joe Donnelly, and he has gone hard for the base. While primary opponents Rep. Luke Messer and former state Sen. Mike Braun have run relatively traditional and non-controversial campaigns, Rokita has been provocative and populist since the beginning.

Campaigns always try to cloak themselves in an everyman appeal. It’s why Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., made sure to throw around a football, and Sen. David Perdue, R-Ga., always wears a jean jacket. But Rokita takes it to a new level.

He swigs a beer. He shoots a rifle. He wears a “Make America Great Again” hat. It’s a cultural argument as much as it is a political one. And if Rokita wins, it will become a blueprint.