Republican campaign poster outrages English village

https://www.cnn.com/2018/10/31/uk/republican-outrages-uk-village-intl/index.html

The article I found this week excited me because it connects with an ongoing project I am doing for Dr. Chod's class. I'm covering the congressional election for Illinois District 11, and I just so happened to come across an article about the Republican candidate. On October 25, candidate Nick Stella posted a photo on his Facebook page of a "run down" neighborhood, writing "Only YOU can stop this from becoming REALITY!" also writing "Help President Trump Keep America on track and thriving, a vote for Foster is a vote for a Speaker Pelosi. We can't go back to foreclosures, unemployment, and economic recession!" The problem here is that the photo of the "run down" town is actually an English village, and they were outraged. The town photographed is identified as Jaywick Sands, which was actually named the most deprived town in England back in 2015. Since, the town has undergone a transformation, making it much better than how it is seen in the photo used in Stella's campaign. A District Council cabinet member from the UK said it was "appalling to use the image for political gain in this way". The director of operations for the Stella campaign claimed they didn't know this was a photo of Jaywick Sands, and they were only using it to show a town overburdened by poor governance, which is what they are seeking to prevent in IL District 11. This just goes to show that the elections going on in the US, big or small, can gain national attention.

By: Liz Metcalf