A Republican political committee aligned with President Donald Trump used photos of the wrong man in a television ad attacking a Navajo congressional candidate.
Ads produced by the No Going Back PAC described former Navajo Nation President Jonathan Nez, who is running against incumbent GOP Rep. Eli Crane in Arizona's 2nd Congressional District, as "backed by liberal politicians" and "pushing higher taxes."
But the ads showed photos of Myron Lizer, who served as Nez's vice president from 2019-23, according to a copy of the video archived by the tracking firm AdImpact.
"Arizona can't afford Jonathan Nez," the ad reads, alongside a black-and-white photo of Lizer.
The ads were scheduled to go live on a range of local Arizona television stations throughout mid-October, leading up to the Nov. 3 general election, according to disclosures filed with the Federal Communications Commission.
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Alex Pfeiffer with Watchtower Strategy, a Trump-aligned public affairs firm, told The Arizona Republic the ad is no longer airing.
Arizona 2nd Congressional District Democratic candidate Jonathan Nez speaks Sept. 9 at the Sneaky Big studios in Scottsdale. A Republican political committee aligned with President Donald Trump used photos of the wrong man in a recent television ad attacking the Navajo congressional candidate.
They were produced as part of an independent effort by the Trump political group and were not formally authorized by Crane's campaign.
"Eli Crane and his billionaire backers are so scared of an Indigenous sheepherder from Shonto, Arizona, they rushed a $700k ad against me," Nez said in a written statement provided by an aide. "But they care so little about the voters of AZ-02 they couldn’t get it right."
"The voters of AZ-02 are tired of their broken promises and disregard for the real challenges they are facing. I guess they don’t care to know my face, but on November 3rd they’ll hear my voice," he said.
A media contact for Crane did not immediately return requests for comment.
That the ads were produced at all is a sign of the headwinds facing Republicans during the 2026 midterms.
The attack blitz was part of a $600,000 expenditure by the Trump-aligned group targeting the district, according to AdImpact, an eyebrow-raising sum in a district that Republicans won in a landslide in 2024. Fundraising and spending in the race have been ramping up in recent months, a stark contrast to the 2024 cycle when the district was widely viewed as outside of a competitive range and saw scant political advertising.
A spokesperson for No Going Back PAC pointed to 2018 allegations that Nez misspent campaign money while running to be president of the Navajo Nation in a written statement: "The ad was corrected shortly after it aired. Has Jonathan Nez corrected and returned the tribal money he used for a Disney trip?"
