The race for the House of Delegates seat in the 50th District took a turn for the worse on Sunday when Dr. Steve Pleickhardt, the Republican nominee for the district, referred to his Democratic opponent Michelle Maldonado as “anti-American” on Twitter.

Pleickhardt’s Tweet attacks Maldonado by calling her anti-American and claiming that she has been throwing baseless attacks at him. The Tweet also includes a graphic telling the people of Bristow to “Just say no to Michelle Maldonado” with a photo of First Lady Nancy Reagan who passed away just five years ago. The graphic alludes to the “Just Say No” campaign, a Reagan Era advertising movement that was part of the “War on Drugs.” Reagan herself served as the spokesperson for most of the ad campaign.

Shortly after sharing that Tweet, Pleickardt took to Twitter again to share another graphic. The second graphic was nearly identical to the first, simply swapping Bristow for Manassas.

PW Perspective spoke with Michelle Maldonado about her opponent’s attacks. Maldonado spoke at length about how her family has served this country. Her husband is a U.S. Air Force Veteran and her grandfather was an instructor for the Tuskegee Airmen.

“I come from a very patriotic family,” Maldonado said. “To claim I’m anti-American is just false.”

Maldonado also said that Pleickhardt’s decision to invoke First Lady Nancy Reagan and use her image in such a way struck her as “odd”.

When asked how she thinks the people of the 50th District will respond to Pleickhardt’s attacks, Maldonado said that she thinks the people of the district are tired of politicians making blatantly false claims. She added that she hopes they will see through the lies that Pleickhardt is presenting.

Not only are Pleickhardt’s tweets offensive to his opponent and the people of his district, but they are also incredibly disrespectful to the memory of Nancy Reagan. Pleickhardt should remove the tweets immediately and apologize to Maldonado, the Reagan Family, and the people of his district. The people of the 50th District deserve better from those who are running for public office. If he cannot make the case for himself without disparaging his opponent by comparing her to drugs and insulting her as “anti-American,” then he should not be running in this election or any other.

This is not the first time Pleickhardt has found himself in hot water. In September, it came to light that Pleickhardt had failed to pay more than $200,000 in federal taxes from 2014 to 2016.