Aftab Pureval, the Democrat nominee in the First Congressional District, has recently come under fire as an alleged proponent of illegal-immigrant amnesty.
On September 19, the Congressional Leadership Fund released a video contending that “Pureval would vote with Nancy Pelosi for open borders and amnesty, putting Ohio families at risk.”
Pureval, whose campaign website’s Issues page does not cite immigration as an issue, visited an immigrant-focused event on September 13 sponsored by Cincinnati’s YWCA. Later that day, he tweeted:
Thanks to the @YWCACincinnati for having me today to speak about how we can combat domestic violence and thanks for all your leadership on empowering women and making them feel safe.
Thanks to the @YWCACincinnati for having me today to speak about how we can combat domestic violence and thanks for all your leadership on empowering women and making them feel safe. pic.twitter.com/DuPDJiMq0N
— Aftab Pureval (@AftabPureval) September 13, 2018
Pureval’s tweet did not describe the occasion for his YWCA appearance. It was the group’s “11th Biennial Conference of the Immigrant Survivors of Partner Violence collaborative,” held at the Hebrew Union Center-Jewish Institute of Religion.
In its August 31 Facebook announcement of the event, the Y revealed that its theme would be “Addressing Trauma in Immigrant and Refugee Communities.” In that post, it also promoted Pureval as its keynote speaker. In doing so, it identified him as the current Hamilton County Clerk of Courts, and avoided mentioning his congressional candidacy. It did not explain how Pureval’s status as county clerk would contribute to addressing the problem of partner violence among immigrants, nor did it identify actions he might be able to take in his current job to deal with that issue.
Pureval’s tweet did not mention the event’s name, its agenda, his status as its keynote speaker, or what he said when he addressed attendees.
As with all tweets from his congressional campaign’s Twitter account, his YWCA tweet describes him as “US House candidate, OH-1”:
In doing so, Pureval used his involvement in that event, held at the venue of a charitable, nonpartisan organization, to promote his candidacy.
The candidate’s silence on the nature of his YWCA appearance and its focus on immigrant partner violence is consistent with his campaign website’s Issues page and, from all appearances, his decision not to respond to the Congressional Leadership Fund’s September 19 ad.
While immigration, particularly illegal immigration, has been a prominent and controversial issue for many years, especially since 2015, when President Donald Trump made it one of the cornerstones of his presidential campaign, no form of any word relating to immigration was present at Pureval’s Issues page early Saturday morning. That page asserts that “he will work to fully fund the Violence Against Women Act,” but does not address how or if it will specifically address the immigrant-partner agenda of the event he keynoted two weeks ago.
