GOP Senate candidate Leora Levy of Connecticut launches quarter million-dollar ad blitz

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FIRST ON FOX: After fueling her Republican Senate campaign in Connecticut with over $1 million in fundraising in her first two months as a candidate, Leora Levy is launching her first major ad blitz in her bid to defeat Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal.

Levy, a businesswoman from Greenwich, Connecticut, and a member of the Republican National Committee, on Tuesday showcased her fundraising haul, which she brought in since launching her campaign in early February. Nearly-three quarters of her fundraising came from a personal investment.

In conjunction with her fundraising figures, Levy is also launching the first ad of her Senate bid. The commercial and the fundraising where shared first with Fox News.

Photo of Republican Senate candidate Leora Levy of Connecticut, a businesswoman from Greenwich and member of the Republican National Committee (Leora Levy Senate campaign)

"My grandparents and my mother escaped the Nazis in Europe. My parents, my sister and I, escaped Castro and the communists in Cuba," Levy says to camera in her spot, as she introduces herself to Connecticut voters. 

Levy, who was a small child when she and her family fled Cuba in 1960, shares that "like so many, my family’s journey is one of tragedy, sacrifice, and hope. Hope for freedom and opportunity and we found it in America."

"Today that freedom is under assault," Levy charges in the ad, as she speaks under video of President Biden. "I’m fed up and I’m running to be U.S. senator for Connecticut because I will never let Joe Biden and Dick Blumenthal destroy what has made this country so great."

Levy’s campaign tells Fox News they’ll spend a quarter million dollars to run the ad on TV and digital.

Levy, a conservative and a strong supporter of former President Donald Trump, is one of six Republican Senate candidates running in the state’s August primary. The field also includes Themis Klarides, the former GOP leader of the Connecticut House of Representatives who initially considered running for governor this year.

While Levy’s fundraising haul is significantly larger than Republicans running for the Senate in Connecticut in recent cycles, it pales compared to Blumenthal’s figures. While he’s yet to announce his January-March first quarter haul, the two-term senator had $7.56 million cash on hand in his campaign coffers at the start of the year.

Republican Senate candidate Leora Levy of Connecticut, a businesswoman from Greenwich and member of the Republican National Committee, meets with veterans in Greenwich, Connecticut on March 16, 2022.

The eventual GOP nominee will face an uphill climb in the general election in trying to defeat Blumenthal, who captured over 63% of the vote in his 2016 reelection. 

But Democrats are facing both historical headwinds and a very unfriendly political climate as they try to retain the razor-thin Senate and House majorities in November’s midterms. Biden’s approval ratings are also slightly underwater in Connecticut, a blue state where he topped Trump by 20 points in the 2020 presidential election.