The Republican Party of Florida sent out mailers attacking Democratic candidate for House District 47, Anna Eskamani, for her vocabulary, saying her “vulgar” potty mouth is “everything wrong with politics today.”

One side warns, “EXPLICIT MATERIALS ON OPPOSITE SIDE.”

On the other side: “EXPLICIT LANGUAGE WARNING: Edited to Meet Decency Standards. Anna Eskamani in her own words: ‘I don’t take SH*T ever,’ ‘Look at the SH*T we have to put up with,’ ‘F*CK the patriarchy.'”

“Ask yourself, is this the example our leaders should be setting for our children?” the mailer asks, concluding, “Anna Eskamani: Extremely Partisan. Extremely Vulgar. Extremely Wrong for Central Florida.”

This attack ad funded by @FloridaGOP has some truth to it, because I refuse to back down when it comes to fighting for the hard working families of Orange County & I’m not going to take advice from political hacks like @StocktonReeves or the entrenched lobbyists who back him. 1/3 pic.twitter.com/IYzBctxfpN — Anna V. Eskamani (@AnnaForFlorida) September 19, 2018

Eskamani, an Iranian-American and the former senior director for Planned Parenthood of Southwest and Central Florida, was tipped off to the mailer from supporters in the district.


“I was expecting this kind of attack because the Republican Party can’t win on issues,” Eskamani told ThinkProgress in an interview. “The only thing they have is to attack is my character, my words, and my movement.”

While the mailers were paid for by the Republican Party of Florida, they were on behalf of her opponent, incumbent state Rep. Stockton Reeves (R). According to Eskamani, Reeves and the Florida GOP used a similar line of attack against Reeve’s Republican primary challenger, who is also a woman.

“There is just such a double-standard when it comes to how women and male candidates are treated,” Eskamani said. “It’s also just so hypocritical because Republicans are the party of Donald Trump — someone who is an actual sexual harasser.”

Facing contentious midterm elections in November, Republicans are frantically grasping at straws trying to use anything they can against their Democratic challengers. Unfortunately for Republicans, however, this strategy often winds up making the Democrat look cool in comparison.

This is best exemplified by Sen. Ted Cruz’s (R-TX) and the Texas GOP’s attempts to smear Cruz’s opponent, Democratic Texas representative Beto O’Rourke, by pointing to the fact that he can skateboard and play guitar. Ultimately, their efforts just made O’Rourke look incredibly rad.

Cruz similarly attacked his opponent for his foul mouth, posting a video of O’Rourke saying things like “Fuck that!”, “How fucked up is that?”, and “What the fuck are these guys doing?”

A lighthearted reminder: A #LaborDay picnic is a great place to bring the kids. A Beto O’Rourke rally? Not so much… #TXSen — Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) September 3, 2018

“If Beto shows up in your town, maybe keep the kids at home,” the narrator of the video says, before cutting to another video of Beto saying, “Because this is fucked up.”

Then there was the infamous tweet from the Texas GOP that lampooned O’Rourke for being in a band when he was younger.

Maybe Beto can’t debate Ted Cruz because he already had plans… pic.twitter.com/LdqKTh3yK4 — Texas GOP (@TexasGOP) August 28, 2018

The tweets didn’t stress out the O’Rourke campaign that much, as they are likely more focused on the extremely tight race to flip a Senate seat blue in November.

Eskamani isn’t bothered by the attacks against her either.

“This is why voters are so disconnected from the Republican Party,” she said. “I’m going to focus on the issues and what really matters for central Florida families.”