A political ad by the Latino Victory Fund portrays a supposed supporter of Republican Ed Gillespie's campaign for governor chasing down minority children with a Confederate battle flag on the back of his pickup truck.
The video by the left-leaning political action committee was tweeted by the group's official Twitter account Monday, eight days before the election.
In it, black, Muslim, and Latino children are seen playing basketball and walking down a sidewalk through a quiet neighborhood.
Suddenly a black pickup truck appears behind one of them. Inside is a white man wearing dark sunglasses and black ballcap. As the young boy begins to run away, the pickup truck, which has a Confederate flag mounted in the bed, continues to follow him.
The boy find another child shooting basketball and yells, "Run!"
As they both take off running, the truck continues following, and it is revealed to have a "Gillespie for Governor" bumper sticker. The two boys catch up to a girl in a Muslim head covering and black child chatting as they walk down the sidewalk.
As they yell, "Run!" all four take off with the truck in pursuit. The truck driver, with a Gadsden flag "Don't Tread on Me" tag on the front pursues them into an alley where a chain link fence leaves them trapped and terrified.
One by one, they are shown awakening and the whole event appears to have been a collective dream.
Two adults are then seen watching the Charlotte "torch march" by white nationalists that sparked violent protests and anti-protests earlier this year.
"Is this what Donald Trump and Ed Gillespie mean by the American Dream?" an announcer says.
"Reject Hate: Vote November 7," the ad ends.
Just ahead of releasing the ad, Latino Victory Fund warned it would be letting Gillespie know what it thinks of him:
The ad was slammed by conservatives, with National Review's Jim Geraghty saying, "Remember this the next time someone laments how 'divisive" our politics have become.
Gillespie denounced the Charlotte rally the morning after it happened, Geraghty noted.
Talk radio host Rush Limbaugh predicted such tactics are beginning to "backfire and implode," while Geraghty called it reminiscent of the add portraying Paul Ryan throwing a grandmother off a cliff.
In a statement to The Washington Free-Beacon, Gillespie campaign manager Chris Leavitt called the ad "disgusting" and an "attack on the people of Virginia."
"Ed Gillespie has focused his campaign on the many policy differences between [Democrat] Ralph Northam and him, but sadly the Northam campaign and its allies have launched a desperate smear campaign against Ed in the closing days of this election," Leavitt said. "The Lieutenant Governor was roundly rebuked for exploiting imagery from the tragedy of Charlottesville for political points. Now his allies have reached a new low with a disgusting, vile television ad seeking to instill fear in our children with that same imagery."
Leavitt said the ad is not just an attack on Gillespie, but "an all out attack on the people of Virginia. This latest ad gives a clear indication of just what Ralph Northam and his national Democratic allies think of all of us, and it's sickening."