Why did Landsman's post on X about voting spark a controversy?

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

Democratic Rep. Greg Landsman A post Tuesday on the social media site

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

Landsmans Republican opponent, Orlando Sonza, revealed the deleted post Tuesday morning. Landsman and Sonza fight for The first congressional district seat in Southwest Ohio.

The screenshot posted by Sonza showed a photo of Landsman and his family with the caption “We voted!” Next to the photo was a screenshot of a tweet from pro-Donald Trump media personality Alexandra Lains, which read: “What are we wearing tomorrow? Sorry, it’s my first civil war.”

Sonza has criticized Landsman for the tweet.

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

Before Sonza’s tweet, Landsman deleted the post and posted the photo of his family and him and the caption “We voted!” again. proclamation. The Civil War tweet was gone.

The Enquirer contacted Landsman and campaign staff. Campaign spokeswoman Jenna Kaufman responded in a statement that a campaign staffer who posted the photo accidentally uploaded a second photo.

“She fixed it,” Kaufman said in the statement to The Enquirer. “Sonza knew it was an accident but couldn’t do anything about it. He hasn’t had a tweet about voting in (the 1st Congressional District) since he’s lived in (the 8th Congressional District).”

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

“And 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, has served as representative of Ohio’s 1st Congressional District since 2022 after unseating longtime Republican Assemblyman Steve Chabot. Sonza, a Republican from Springfield Township north of Cincinnati, heads the Hamilton County Veterans Service Commission.

Landsman and the Democrats have a lead in the district, which Biden won by 8.5 percentage points in 2020.

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