Donald Trump is in town, and Republican Rep. Mike Coffman of Aurora has a campaign ad out in which he speaks Spanish and members of his diverse district's Ethiopian, Korean, Chinese and Latino communities all heap praise on his hard work.
"He's not like other Republicans," one woman says.
"I think he's better," says another.
Coffman is in a tough re-election campaign against Democratic challenger state Sen. Morgan Carroll, and liberal groups, particularly Latino ones, have tried to tie Coffman to Trump.
Politifact ranked a claim that Coffman is "with Trump" mostly false.
Coffman supported Florida Sen. Marco Rubio earlier this year but also said he would support the Republican nominee. Coffman has also criticized Trump for the candidate's attacks on Colorado's convention system. His campaign gave this statement to Politifact back in May:
Both Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump have tapped into a legitimate anger about the failures of Washington but instead of running a campaign built on a positive vision for overcoming these failures, Donald Trump has conducted a polarizing and divisive campaign. Hillary Clinton is a non-starter and lacks the integrity to lead this nation but Trump has a long way to go to earn the support of many -- me included.
Coffman used to take a hard line on immigration issues. He was first elected by the same Douglas County constituency that sent Tom Tancredo to Congress. But redistricting handed him A LOT more Latino voters, and he started to see things differently.
The district is still ranked as "leaning Republican," but the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee has targeted it as part of its "Red to Blue" initiative and pledged material support for Carroll.
The New York Times' Jonathan Martin had this read on the ad on Twitter:
How are downballot Rs in diverse states handling Trump? See this Coffman spot in CO, implication clear as day
