New midterm ad accuses GOP Rep. of 'putting a gun to his wife's head'
Holden Hoggatt, a Repulbican, is running to unseat Rep. Clay Higgins
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A Republican in Louisiana unveiled a fresh attack ad on Rep. Clay Higgins, R-La., Tuesday, resurfacing decades-old allegations that he pointed a gun at his own wife.
Local prosecutor Holden Hoggatt is running as a Republican to unseat Higgins and released the brief ad in September. In the ad, a police officer lays out allegations that Higgins' ex-wife made against him in court in 1991.
The officer accuses Higgins of "putting a gun to his wife's head, threatening her if she divorced him and refusing to pay child support for 17 years."
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The style of the ad, featuring a comically over-serious cop, is meant to mock CrimeStoppers videos that Higgins had made during his career as a police officer.
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"He had put a gun to my head before, during an argument," Eloisa Rovati Higgins told the court in writing at the time. "He threatened that if I ever came near the house he would shoot me."
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Higgins has repeatedly denied his ex-wife's claims throughout his political career.
"I’m not concerned with the insidious lies of desperate men. I have a job to do, a nation to save, and 760K constituents of South Louisiana to serve," he said in a Tuesday statement to Fox News Digital.
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"There was no violence in our relationship, ever," he said in response to the same allegation in 2016, according to The Advocate.
He argues his marriage deteriorated due to the stress of losing their 6-month old daughter. The ultimate cause for the divorce cited in court was infidelity on the part of Higgins, the outlet reported.
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"We were crushed, as human beings, by the death of our little girl," Higgins said at the time. "For the only time in my life, I was not strong enough as a man for myself and my wife. And I can never forgive myself because I just didn’t have the strength to survive myself and pull her through."