Ted Cruz’s latest ad features a porn star.
The ad, “Conservatives Anonymous,” was launched on Thursday and taken down by the evening, after BuzzFeed first reported that one of the actresses, Amy Lindsay, had a background in soft-core pornography.
The 30-second spot portrayed a group therapy session in which conservatives who formerly supported Marco Rubio comforted one another. “Maybe you should vote for more than just a pretty face next time,” Lindsay told one former Rubio supporter, who “felt dumb for trusting” the Florida senator.
“The actress responded to an open casting call. She passed her audition and got the job,” Cruz campaign spokesperson Rick Tyler told BuzzFeed. “Unfortunately, she was not vetted by the production company. Had the campaign known of her full filmography, we obviously would not have let her appear in the ad.”
Lindsay, for her part, told BuzzFeed that she’s a Republican and a Christian conservative. She responded to the campaign’s removal of the ad on Twitter:
Extremely disappointed the #TedCruz campaign pulled the national television spot I had a role in… @CNN @Foxnews #moretocome #myvotecounts
— Amy Lindsay (@amylindsayLA) February 12, 2016
Extremely disappointed the #TedCruz campaign pulled the national television spot I had a role in… @CNN @Foxnews #moretocome #myvotecounts
— Amy Lindsay (@amylindsayLA) February 12, 2016