Last week, the Congressional Leadership Fund, the main super PAC backing House Republicans, launched ads attacking Democrats in four House races for refusing to rebuke Ellison. The conservative Minnesota Jobs Coalition posted video of a tracker confronting the minority leader of the Minnesota House of Representatives in a parking lot over the issue. In a rare reminder of the accusations against Ellison in Chicago, a conservative tracker confronted DNC Chairman Tom Perez over the issue, as well.

“We see it as a game changer in terms of keeping pressure on the Democrats,” said Ben Golnik, a Republican strategist in St. Paul. “I think it puts [Democrats] really in a bind.”

Ellison, a six-term congressman and deputy chairman of the Democratic National Committee, won Minnesota’s Democratic primary for state attorney general days after a former girlfriend accused him of abusing her — an accusation Ellison denied.

Before the election, Austin Monahan, the son of Ellison’s ex-girlfriend, Karen Monahan, posted on social media that he had found a video on his mother’s computer that he said showed Ellison “dragging my mama off the bed by her feet,” screaming profanities at her. Monahan has since said her son’s account is accurate but that she would not release the alleged footage.

Ellison said in a statement that “the video does not exist because I never behaved in this way,” and he told reporters, “I did not do this thing she’s accusing me of.”

But less than a week into the general election campaign — and with Minnesota Democrats still standing by Ellison — Republicans pounced. The Congressional Leadership Fund’s initial ads targeted two Democrats bidding to flip two Republican-held House seats, and two Democrats running in open districts that President Donald Trump carried by double digits in 2016.

The Democrats — health care executive Angie Craig, businessman Dean Phillips, former Obama administration official Dan Feehan and former state Rep. Joe Radinovich — all are targets of the same critique in the ads. After a short clip of Monahan telling CBS News that Ellison cursed at her and tried to “drag me off the bed,” the ad relays a call from the National Organization for Women for Ellison to drop out of the race, then yokes each Democratic candidate to him.

“But Joe Radinovich is standing by Keith Ellison,” states the ad running in Minnesota’s 8th Congressional District, a perennial battleground. “Backing Ellison instead of believing his victim? … Joe Radinovich should be ashamed.”

A CLF official said the ads are running on TV and digital in each district, part of a six-figure ad buy.

Other Republicans are eager to pile on. Within hours of CLF releasing its ads, Minnesota Jobs Coalition posted video of a tracker confronting Melissa Hortman, minority leader of the state House of Representatives.

“Do you believe his accuser?” the tracker asks, as Hortman reaches into the passenger side of a van.

“I believe the congressman has addressed those allegations,” the Democrat says before walking away, the tracker in tow.

John Rouleau, executive director of Minnesota Jobs Coalition, said the video and ads running against congressional candidates are only “a preview of what’s to come.”

“At this point, certainly, Congressman Ellison is a drag on the rest of the Democratic ticket in the state,” Rouleau said. “I think we’re seeing that now.”

Of Republicans’ plans to press Democrats on Ellison ahead of the November elections, Rouleau said, “it’s still early, and still starting to get rolling.”

National Republican Congressional Committee spokeswoman Maddie Anderson wrote in an email, “every Minnesota Democrat needs to denounce Keith Ellison. Silence in the face of these disturbing allegations is an insult to victims of domestic violence everywhere.”

Democrats, while fearful of the potential fallout, have largely held back — or remained in Ellison’s corner. After Ellison’s primary victory, the state central committee of the Democratic-Farmer Labor Party, as Democrats are known in Minnesota, voted 326-70 to endorse Ellison.

Addressing delegates before the vote, Ellison said, “I want you to know that I take what has happened in the past week extremely seriously,” appealing to Democrats to “stick with me in this moment.”

After the vote, state party chairman Ken Martin released a statement praising Ellison as a “champion for families” who will “fight to hold powerful interests accountable.”

“Our Party stands with him in his campaign,” Martin said, “and we look forward to working together to keep this seat.”

In a state with a competitive gubernatorial election and two U.S. Senate seats on the ballot, it is unclear how much attention Ellison will continue to generate from his lower-tier contest. Ellison, campaigning over the weekend at the Minnesota State Fair, told the Minneapolis Star Tribune that in his conversations with fairgoers, no one asked him about the allegations.

Nor is it clear how effective ads invoking him will be. Democratic efforts to punish Republicans for claims of misconduct against Trump largely have fallen flat.

“I just think guilt by association doesn’t work, and never has, and never will,” said Jeff Blodgett, a longtime Democratic strategist in Minnesota. “Keith Ellison is running for attorney general, and while that’s an important race, it’s not what’s on people’s minds … It’s not dominating every race.”

Yet for many Democrats, the Ellison episode quickly recalled the resignation of former Sen. Al Franken, who left office amid sexual harassment allegations — and who some Minnesotans maintain was treated unfairly by national Democrats calling for his ouster. While 45 percent of Minnesota Democrats believed the accusations against Franken, only 21 percent said he should have resigned, according to a Star Tribune Minnesota Poll earlier this year.

“The majority of folks think that it wasn’t fair, and [Franken] was steamrollered into quitting, and that should not have happened,” said Rick Kahn, who helped Democrat Rep. Tim Walz in his successful gubernatorial primary. “So, for Keith, I think that experience with Al, that’s borne out, I would argue, based on the fact that 83 percent of the people at this state central committee meeting voted to endorsed Keith on Saturday.”

“There is profound regret in this state about what happened to Franken,” Kahn said.

When it comes to Ellison, he said, “I just think it is time for people to yes, believe the victims, yes, make it easy for them to speak out. But if you disqualify someone from public service based on an unproven accusation, we’re in trouble in this country … It’s a false choice to say that believing the victims means that you can’t have due process of the accusations to determine what really happened.”