“I want to know who these ‘crazy Democrats’ are,” state senator Maria Chappelle-Nadal, who represents parts of North St. Louis, told THE WEEKLY STANDARD. “Is she talking about African Americans? Is she talking about the LGBT community? Is she talking about pro-choicers? Is she talking about the activists on the ground that have been responding to racial inequity? The question she needs to be asked and forced to answer is who are the crazy Democrats she’s talking about and relying on to vote for her in November. We deserve an answer.”

State Representative Courtney Curtis represents the St. Louis-adjacent city of Ferguson, where racial tensions flared following the August 2014 police shooting of African-American teenager Michael Brown. Curtis told TWS that the McCaskill ad was a “dog whistle.”

“It’s a message that’s coded, that’s reaching out to a certain kind of person and trying to play or cater to their worst fears or thoughts by saying ‘those crazy Democrats,’” Curtis said. “And the immediate question is who are you talking about, and then what are you doing to that person in trying to get this voter in this way or manner . . . It almost dehumanizes or devalues the person’s worth or contribution to the community.”