An immigrant-rights group pulled down an ad depicting a truck stalking young minority children — an attack ad agains the Republican in Virginia’s governor’s race — after the New York vehicle attack Tuesday.

The Latino Victory Fund’s ad showed a pickup truck with a Confederate flag and an Ed Gillespie bumper sticker chasing down Muslim, Latino and black children, and accused the GOP candidate of spreading “hate.”

Mr. Gillespie’s campaign called the ad “vile,” and it drew criticism from other circles as well.

But after Tuesday’s apparent terrorist attack in New York City, which saw a man plow a truck down a bike path, killing eight and injuring more than a dozen others, the LVF said it was compelled to pull the ad.

“We have decided to pull our ad at this time,” said Cristóbal J. Alex, the fund’s president. “Given recent events, we will be placing other powerful ads into rotation that highlight the reasons we need to elect progressive leaders in Virginia.”

Still, he defended the contents.

“We knew our ad would ruffle feathers. We held a mirror up to the Republican Party, and they don’t like what they see,” he said.

Mr. Gillespie’s team says the ad is unfair because he has forcefully condemned neo-Nazis and white supremacists who rallied in Charlottesville over the summer, in clashes that left one woman dead. Police say a white supremacist supporter plowed his car into a crowd of counterprotesters, killing the woman.

Sign up for Daily Newsletters Manage Newsletters

Copyright © 2020 The Washington Times, LLC. Click here for reprint permission.