‘You’ve stolen my voice’: Philly mother featured in ad attacking Kamala Harris calls on Trump to take it down

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Kimberly Burrell, who calls herself a lifelong Democrat from Philadelphia, said she was shocked to learn she is prominently featured in an ad produced by a Donald Trump–aligned group attacking Vice President Kamala Harris.

When friends and colleagues — and even a woman she met at the bus stop — told her they saw her “on TV,” Burrell would immediately reply, “I’m sorry.”

“I don’t want to have to keep apologizing for something I didn’t do,” she said Thursday.

Burrell sat for a panel in July hosted by MSNBC to talk about gun violence. Her 18-year-old son Darryl Pray Jr. was shot and killed 15 years before. The super PAC, called “Restoration PAC,” used footage from the event to create an ad titled “Harrisnomics Is Destroying the Economy.”

“Two-thirds of registered voters believe the economy is getting worse,” the ad announces.

Then, a darkened and distorted image of Burrell appears.

“Imagine a mother who’s making minimum wage trying to feed children,” she says. “They’re killing us without killing us.”

Burrell said the ad also distorts her position and read a letter to Trump asking him to act and get it taken down.

“You’ve stolen my voice and taken a moment of vulnerability from me,” Burrell said. “And now because of you, I am forced to defend myself to friends, to neighbors, asking me why I participated in this advertisement, even though I didn’t. You twisted my words against my will. I care about what happens in this election.”

WHYY News reached out to the Trump campaign, which said “they do not coordinate with PACs” but declined further comment. Restoration PAC did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The law forbids campaign committees from coordinating with such organizations, which by law are confined to “issue advocacy.” However, what constitutes “issue advocacy” can be very broad and they are allowed to invoke specific candidates in their ads and literature.

“Restoration PAC is a non-partisan political action committee that engages in political activities, advocates for policy changes and/or the election or defeat of candidates on the basis of time-tested conservative principles,” Restoration PAC’s website states.

Heather LaMarre, who teaches political communications at Temple University, told WHYY News that using someone’s likeness may be legal, but it is unethical.

“Taking somebody’s likeness — especially the likeness of a grieving mother over gun violence — and using it to twist her intent and promote a political ad against the very person that she plans to vote for is, at its very core, deceitful and dishonest,” she said.

LaMarre added that it is also a common practice, particularly with the substantial increase in the number of organizations like Restoration PAC that are led independently and run separately from candidate committees.

“The problem is we are working in a media environment with over 10 billion political attack ads that are going to be used in this election cycle,” she said. “These are put together very quickly, and they don’t necessarily do a lot of background research on all the people in the advertisement.”