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Why did Landsman’s X post about voting cause controversy?

Online Niel November 6, 2024

This story has been updated to clarify when Landsman deleted his tweet.

Rep. Democrat Greg Landsman posted on social media site X on Tuesday announcing that she had voted caused a bit of a stir on Election Day.

When asked by The Enquirer, Landsman’s campaign said the tweet was an accident.

Landsman’s Republican opponent, Orlando Sonza, brought to light the deleted post on Tuesday morning. Landsman and Sonza fight for Seat of Southwest Ohio’s 1st Congressional District.

The screenshot posted by Sonza showed a picture of Landsman and his family with the text “I voted!” Alongside the image was a screenshot of a tweet by pro-Donald Trump media personality Alexandra Lains, which read “What are we doing tomorrow? I’m sorry, it’s my first civil war.”

Sonza slammed Landsman for the tweet.

“This type of rhetoric from an elected official on election day is exactly why we need new leadership in this district,” Sonza wrote in his X post.

Before Sonza’s tweet, Landsman deleted the post and reposted the picture of his family and him and “I voted!” proclamation. The Civil War tweet is gone.

The Enquirer reached out to Landsman and campaign staff. Campaign spokeswoman Jenna Kaufman responded in a statement that a campaign staffer who posted the photo had mistakenly uploaded a second photo.

“She worked it out,” Kaufman said in a statement to The Enquirer. “Sonza knew it was an accident, but she couldn’t help it. He didn’t have a tweet to vote in (1st congressional district) because he lives in (8th congressional district).”

This was in reference to Sonza’s residence in Springfield Township, which is adjacent to the 8th Congressional District. Federal law does not require members of Congress to live within their district, only within the state. Sonza at the start of the campaign he promised to move to the district “when we win.”

“Besides, why would we tweet something about the civil war from a Trump supporter?” Kaufman said in the statement.

Landsman, a Democrat from Cincinnati’s Mount Washington neighborhood, served as a representative for Ohio’s 1st Congressional District in 2022 after unseating longtime Republican Rep. Steve Chabot. Sonza, a Republican from Springfield Township north of Cincinnati, chairs the Hamilton County Veterans Service Commission.

Landsman and the Democrats hold an edge in the district, which Biden won by 8.5 percentage points in 2020.

(This story has been updated to add a video.)