Va. Dem. Turns 'You've Lost That Loving Feeling' Into Campaign Ad Calling Planned Parenthood, Obamacare 'Centrist'

On Monday, Army veteran Dan Helmer released a campaign ad against Congresswoman Barbara Comstock (R-Va.) which is guaranteed to turn some heads. In the video, he sang to a Comstock look-alike, adapting the Righteous Brothers’ “You’ve Lost That Loving Feeling” to the race for Virginia’s 10th congressional district.

Helmer hit Comstock on her avoidance of town halls and on her opposition to Planned Parenthood and Obamacare.

“You never hold town halls anymore with constituents,” the young Democrat started singing. “Planned Parenthood and Obamacare you voted against.”

“You’re trying hard not to show it, but Barbara — Barbara you know it. You’ve lost that centrist feeling, ’cause you’ve been right wing appealing…”

“We’ve lost that loving feeling, now it’s gone, gone, gone. You’ve got to go,” Helmer’s ditty concluded.

The Democrat signed off with a rather hilarious message. “I’m Dan Helmer. I approve of town halls, bad singing, and this message.”

Helmer’s ad proved clever for many reasons. Throughout the ad, the candidate appears with a t-shirt reading “VETERAN.” He seems young, hip, and slightly nerdy, but very charismatic, to be leading a crowded bar in bursting into song.

Finally, he subtly attempted to make votes against funding for Planned Parenthood and votes to repeal and replace Obamacare seem unpopular. In reality, these issues are not nearly as “centrist” as Helmer would have viewers believe, but the way he mentioned them in the ad seemed to ask, “How could any rational person oppose these things?”

But the ad wasn’t just a desperate ploy to push Planned Parenthood and Obamacare.

Helmer is running in a very contested Democratic primary, against at least three other candidates and likely even more. Democrats are eyeing Comstock’s 10th congressional district as a possible pick-up in 2018 because Hillary Clinton won that district in the 2016 presidential election.

Helmer faces steep competition for the Democratic primary. Virginia State Senator Jennifer Wexton announced her candidacy in April, as did Lindsey Davis Stover, a senior advisor to former President Obama’s Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki. Kimberley Adams, a 17-year school teacher and former president of the Fairfax County Education Association, has also already announced her candidacy.

Rumors have also circulated that Dorothy McAuliffe, wife of Governor Terry McAuliffe, may also run for the 10th district.

Given this steep competition, Helmer has the race cut out for him. This ad is just the beginning.

Click “Load More” to see Helmer’s ad.