Peter Hoekstra in State of Michigan secondary Archives

On Principles & Values: AdWatch: It's not racist to note that US funds help China

Hoekstra addressed claims that his ad is inappropriate and plays on racially-charged stereotypes: "The only group of people that this ad is anti" Hoekstra said, "it's anti-Debbie Stabenow, it's anti-Barack Obama, the spending policies of the liberal left."

"You'll notice that the ad," he continued, "points to the opportunities that America's dumb economic policies--deficit spending, trillion dollars of deficits & debt--it creates the opportunities for counties like China and others to take advantage of our weakness."

When asked about the young woman speaking broken English, Hoekstra responded, "it's not a stereotype at all. This is a young woman in China who is speaking English. That's quite an achievement."