In October , the Latino Victory Fund , which supported Northam , released an ad in which a pickup truck , adorned with a Gillespie bumper sticker , a " Do n't tread on me " license plate , and a Confederate flag , chases down minority children and corners them in an alley — one of the children in the ad then wakes up , revealing the scene to have been a nightmare . Although Northam and his campaign were not involved with the ad , Northam initially defended it , saying Gillespie 's own ads " have promoted fearmongering , hatred , bigotry , racial divisiveness , " and adding , " I mean , it 's upset a lot of communities , and they have the right to express their views as well . " The ad was pulled the following day in the hours after a terrorist attack in New York City , in which a man killed several people by running them over with a truck . Northam then distanced himself from the ad , re-emphasizing that it was not released by his campaign and saying that it is not one that he would have chosen to run . A spokesman for the campaign has said that the Latino Victory Fund 's decision to pull the ad was " appropriate and the right thing to do . " FOX 5 DC reported that the Northam campaign had accepted $ 62,000 as an in-kind media contribution from the Latino Victory Fund
a terrorist attack in New York City
2017 New York City truck attack
Ed Gillespie