Rep. Jim Costa (D–Fresno) appears to be taking his intraparty challenge by Fresno City Councilwoman Esmeralda Soria seriously.
After running an ad criticizing Soria’s comments about living paycheck-to-paycheck, citing her salary and city contracts obtained by her now-fiancée, Costa released a new ad featuring Soria on Friday.
This time, it uses Soria’s own words against her:
Friday afternoon, Soria’s retweeted the following comment from Fresno activist Sergio Cortes:
I’m sick of @RepJimCosta
spending corporate dollars to run a dirty campaign against a progressive @Esmeralda_Soria. Costa is not a real Dem, he’s been pretending to be one all this time. It’s time we had a real leader representing our community in DC! I am supporting Soria! pic.twitter.com/YnDqmOfhqg— Sergio Cortes (@surgecortes) February 14, 2020
Later, Soria published her own response to the ad:
♥️Happy Valentines Day! ♥️
Remember, love Trumps hate!
My opponent released another ad, attacking me on supporting him in the past. See the full list of his previous supporters below that are now choosing to support our campaign for change: pic.twitter.com/2f31tcxA8Q— Esmeralda Soria (@Esmeralda_Soria) February 14, 2020
Costa also faces another Democrat, Merced resident Kim Williams, and Republican Kevin Cookingham in the March 3 Primary.
