Ohio senator Jon Husted backpedals after Soposki family condemns attack ad using dead children as 'raw material'

Jesse Mallen, 40, was horrified to see his sister Lynnea Soposki, her husband Luke and their one-year-old son Logan featured in a Republican attack ad, just months after all three perished in a deadly Ohio motorway crash. The ad, titled 'Dangerous for Ohio,' was paid for by the National Republican Senatorial Committee and authorised by Husted's own campaign, attributing the April deaths to former Democratic senator Sherrod Brown's immigration policies. Husted subsequently sought to disavow the ad, telling reporters it was a "third-party" effort — a claim reporters swiftly shot down by pointing to his own authorisation line.

'Our grief is not raw material for a campaign,' Mallen wrote publicly after the ad ran across Ohio for at least two weeks, racking up 5.6 million YouTube views.

Lynnea, 36, Luke, 37, and baby Logan died on April 11 when a semi-truck collided with their pickup on I-71, setting off a nine-car pileup that engulfed their vehicle in flames.

The family say they were never consulted, would have refused permission, and are still awaiting the truck driver's criminal trial in September.