Overview
- Republican operatives ran a 15‑ to 30‑second spot that showed photos of Lynnea, Luke and 1‑year‑old Logan Soposki and footage of the April Interstate 71 crash; ad trackers estimate it ran for at least 16 days at roughly $1 million and a clip on the NRSC’s YouTube page has millions of views.
- The Soposki relatives say they never consented to use of the photo and asked the Husted campaign and the NRSC to remove the ad after privately contacting the campaign, and reporting says the image’s photographer holds the copyright and did not authorize its use.
- Sen. Jon Husted’s campaign has called the spot a third‑party NRSC ad even as multiple reports say Husted authorized the NRSC placement, and NRSC spokespeople defended the ad’s message as holding Sen. Sherrod Brown accountable.
- The crash in April killed the three Soposkis and left the driver, Modou Ngom, facing state felony counts of aggravated vehicular homicide and vehicular assault; DHS has said Ngom was naturalized in 2015 and Ohio’s public safety office referred identity and document concerns to ICE but no federal immigration charges have been filed.
- The episode underscores ethical and legal tensions in campaign advertising about victims’ images by highlighting consent and copyright risks, disputed factual framing on immigration, pending civil wrongful‑death litigation, and potential political fallout in a closely watched Ohio Senate race.