Philly-Area Republican Couple Threatened After Filming Kamala Harris Ad

Republicans farmers Bob Lange and Kristina Chadwick Lange in a television ad for Kamala Harris for President (image via Kamala Harris for President)

Pennsylvania farmers Bob Lange and wife Kristina Chadwick Lange are lifelong Republicans. They’ve never voted for a Democrat for president. Bob, who featured prominently in this just-published Philadelphia magazine story about a property dispute, is also an elected Republican official in the charming Chester County community of Willistown. The couple owns and operates Willisbrook Farm and Sugartown Strawberries on the rural Western fringes of the Main Line. They are entering their busiest time of year: pumpkin and hayride season. But when it comes to politics, 2024 is different. Bob and Kristina are both voting for Kamala Harris for president. And that’s the exact message they delivered in a Kamala Harris campaign ad, after which things turned ugly.

It all started at the beginning of summer, back when Joe Biden was still in the race. Bob came across a survey on the internet in which he was asked something along the lines of, “If you’re a Republican who voted for Donald Trump twice, would you vote for him a third time?” He clicked “No.” And that was that. He didn’t think anything else of it. That is until the Kamala Harris campaign reached out and asked him if he’d be willing to appear in a commercial that would air in Pennsylvania and perhaps some other key states. He said sure.

The film crew came out the following week to the couple’s farm.

“Originally, I just sat on the sideline while they talked to Bob,” says Kristina. “But I kept thinking, Don’t forget to talk about this and Don’t forget to talk about that, so finally I just decided that I was going to get in there and do this.”

And so she did, the final result being this:

Bob voted for Trump in 2016 and 2020. Kristina went Trump in 2016 but abstained in 2020. Kristina tells Philly Mag that she felt that “Trump failed America” when it came to the COVID crisis and that she just couldn’t vote for him again. But she says she also couldn’t push the button for Biden in 2020. For Bob, Trump was his reluctant choice in 2020. “But after January 6th, I said never again,” Bob says.

“I already knew he was mean spirited,” admits Bob. “Condemning John McCain. The way he treated Gold Star families. Just one thing after another. But then he instigated what happened on January 6th, and that was it for me.”

Both had concerns about Biden’s age, but their fears of what would happen to America under a second Trump presidency overruled those misgivings. And then came Kamala Harris.

“She really energized me,” says Kristina. “I would have loved to have a woman for president, but I just didn’t believe Hillary Clinton was the one. But once I heard Kamala Harris speak, once I heard her story and what she’s about, she really impressed me. I’ve come to respect her.”

The ad campaign began last week, only intended to target certain rural markets. But on Tuesday, unbeknownst to Bob and Kristina, the hosts of MSNBC’s popular Morning Joe show talked about the “Republicans for Kamala” movement. They aired the entire commercial. Nationally. Frequent Morning Joe pundit Al Sharpton chimed in with some thoughts.

This national attention led to an eruption of posts on X that made all sorts of claims about the couple, including that they were actually Democrats and paid actors. Some leaned more into the QAnon realm, ridiculously suggesting that they were pedophiles.

Bob and Kristina were blissfully unaware of all of this until Tuesday night, when Kristina sat down to check the farm’s email account. And there, she was horrified to see hate mail. Lots of hate mail. The couple wasn’t sure how haters and trolls even found them, since the commercial only uses their first names, and their businesses aren’t identified in the ad. But it turns out that the Kamala Harris campaign sent out a press release last week that didn’t just use their full names and the name of their businesses — it even linked to their website.

Philly Mag has reviewed some of the messages sent to the couple, and it’s fair to characterize the content as nothing short of disgusting and vile. Some of the messages included threats. And those are just the emails. Then came the phone calls. Comments on the farm’s social media accounts.

Kristina Chadwick Lange and Bob Lange on their farm, as seen in a Kamala Harris commercial (image via Kamala Harris for President)

“It’s really been exhausting,” says Kristina.

The couple went to the police, who confirm they are investigating. But, as tends to happen in these cases, the emails and phone calls seem to have come from anonymous sources. Naturally, Bob and Kristina have concerns for their personal safety and the safety of their property, and so they remain armed at all times. According to Bob, the police have set up extra patrols to keep an eye on things.

We asked the couple if they regret making the commercial in light of what’s happening to them now.

“Absolutely not,” insists Kristina. “Not for one second. It’s very scary, but we as Republicans must stand up.”

“If we don’t stand up,” interjects Bob, “I don’t want to think about the consequences.”