LaVenture added that as a state Representative, Pace introduced a bill that would have required Colorado agencies to buy American products. The bill stalled, he noted, but Pace then pressed his case with the governor. “It was because of Sal’s leadership that the Governor ended up signing the ‘Buy America’ executive order,” he said. “This couldn’t have happened without Sal’s leadership. All of Colorado workers and their families are better off because of it. … Ensuring that state agencies use products manufactured here in America will make certain that our taxes are not used to ship jobs overseas. It means we build bridges with steel from a company down the street, instead of shipping steel from across an ocean.”

In the ad, a steelworker from Pueblo recalls the story of the local bridge made with steel from China. “I worked 35 years in this steel mill,” the worker says in the ad. “And our steel built Pueblo. But when the state built this bridge, they used Chinese steel. … Sal Pace was the only one who listened.”

In a statement announcing the steel ad, the Pace campaign said it will air until Election Day.

“Our government should buy American products so that our tax dollars — and our jobs — don’t get shipped overseas,” Pace said in his campaign’s press release on the new ad. “We need to put forward policies that grow the economy from the middle class out, and there’s no better way to do that than to support American manufacturing.”