Calling your opponent a racist is a tried and true method of the left, and Democratic Virginia Lt. Gov Ralph Northam is no exception.

Northam is looking to bump himself up to the Governor’s chair but in order to do that he first must beat his challenger, Republican Ed Gillespie.

Northam’s grand plan to do that involves sending out a flier he and Democratic lieutenant governor nominee Justin Fairfax and Attorney General Mark Herring all approved of that lumps in Gillespie, not only with Donald Trump but the Charlottesville white supremacists as well.

The flier reads “On Tuesday, November 7th, Virginia Gets To Stand Up…To Hate,” and features Gillespie and Trump hovering above the tiki torch-wielding white supremacist crowd like they were the main characters in this a movie about modern racism.

.@RalphNortham’s campaign reaches a new low: exploiting Charlottesville tragedy to score political points https://t.co/JHJiXyZ5V1 #VAGov pic.twitter.com/4IATNh5Qq0

— Eric Wilson (@ericwilson) October 25, 2017

According to WaPo, on the flip side of the flier, Northam, Fairfax, and Herring are featured prominently with the phrase “This is our chance to stand up to Trump, Gillespie, and hate.” All three Democrats reportedly approved the flier, and the Democratic Party of Virginia paid for the mailer.

Classy.

The problem for the Democrats is that Gillespie condemned the white supremacists who appeared in Charlottesville and the violence that occurred when they met the radical leftist group, Antifa.

“Having a right to spew vile hate does not make it right,” Gillespie said of the white supremacists. “It is painful to see these ugly events in Charlottesville last night and today. These displays have no place in our Commonwealth, and the mentality on display is rejected by the decent, thoughtful and compassionate fellow Virginians I see every day.”

While Trump blamed both Antifa and the white supremacists for the violence, he said there were “very fine people” on both sides. Gillespie had disagreed with Trump, saying there was no “moral equivalency” between the sides, and that he saw no “fine people” at the march.

So the ad is not only a low blow, it’s a completely fabricates a reality in which Gillespie was for the white supremacist march all along despite the fact that he was as outraged as everybody else. If Northam and his goons want to stand up to “hate,” their finger is pointing in the wrong direction.

According to WaPo, Gillespie’s campaign has denounced the ad and the Democrats who approved it:

“To now see Ralph Northam and the Democratic ticket exploit imagery from that tragic weekend to try to score political points is both outrageous and beneath the dignity of the offices they seek,” Gillespie campaign manager Chris Leavitt said in a statement. “This is an ugly political attack that has no place in our Commonwealth’s political discourse. Ralph Northam should be ashamed to have approved such a hateful mail piece.”