Kochs unleash $2 million ad in Ohio Senate race

Fredreka Schouten, USA TODAY 10:53 a.m. EDT March 16, 2016

Freedom Partners Action Fund, a group at the center of Charles Koch's conservative political network, unleashed its first political ad of the 2016 campaign Wednesday, launching a $2 million campaign in Ohio's closely watched Senate race.

The ad targets Democrat Ted Strickland, Ohio's former governor who formally captured his party's nomination Tuesday night. The 30-second commercial features a man identified only as "Joel," a former employee of the international shipping giant DHL, which closed its hub in Wilmington, Ohio, during Strickland's tenure as the state's chief executive.

"When he should have been in there fighting, we lost 400,000 jobs in the state of Ohio," Joel says in the ad. "His track record is not there. There's no reason to go back to Ted Strickland."

The ad argues that Strickland's policies created an environment that encouraged employers to move jobs to other states with more business-friendly tax policies.

Strickland is seeking to oust a Republican incumbent, Ohio Sen. Rob Portman.

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