Anna Kaplan launches TV campaign ad for Israel’s seat

Democratic congressional primary contender Anna Kaplan is launching her first TV ad Wednesday, saying her immigrant background makes her the best candidate to take on Donald Trump’s “hateful” stand on immigration.

Kaplan, a North Hempstead town board member seeking to succeed retiring Rep. Steve Israel in a five-way Democratic primary, starts her political spot with a jet plane landing, then a view of a New York City bridge with handwriting superimposed over it.

“I was 13 years old and all alone. Even my parents were left behind,” she recalls. “I was a Jewish refugee from the Iranian Revolution, persecuted for my religion and gender.”

The ad then shows Kaplan looking directly into the camera.

“America gave me a chance,” she says. “So when Donald Trump says these hateful things, I know how dangerous it can become and how important it is to fight back.”

The ad then concludes with a picture of Kaplan, her husband and her two teenage daughters.

“America is about bringing people together,” she says. “It’s a fight I was made for.”

Kaplan’s new spot joins one aired by Suffolk Legis. Steve Stern that touts his late mother and her T-shirt business, women’s rights and middle-class issues.

Reginald Johnson, Kaplan’s spokesman, called the ad buy “very aggressive,” but declined to detail how large it is, how long it will air or the number of stations that will run it. He said the buy is aimed at “getting Anna’s compelling message out to as many people as possible.”