Former GOP presidential candidate Michele Bachmann sent a fundraising email Friday morning for her congressional re-election campaign in which she attacked her new opponent, Anne Nolan, a self-identified Occupy Wall Street supporter.
Bachmann's email to supporters criticized the Occupy movement at large, describing it as a threat to conservative values. "By touting the values of Occupy Wall Street, my opponent clearly favors the opposite: a lazy handout culture where big government is king. This is the America that the left seeks to impose on the American people," Bachmann wrote.
Nolan, an attorney in St. Cloud, Minnesota and member of the Democratic-Farm-Labor Party told the St. Cloud Times that the Occupy movement inspired her to enter the congressional race.
“I feel this is a real opportunity for a candidate to raise the economic issues that the Occupy movement is talking about,” Nolan said.
Bachmann also used Friday's email to connect the Occupy movement to Barack Obama.
"The threat that Occupy Wall Street poses to our conservative values this November cannot be overstated. With President Obama as their cheerleader, the left will spend millions between now and November to re-elect him and replace conservatives like me with Occupy-branded liberals who will cheer at every big-government Obama initiative."
The email requested that supporters give an emergency donation to help in her efforts to "fight Occupy Wall Street."
Making reference to the redistricting which recently took place in Minnesota, Bachmann also complained that her home had been drawn out of the district in which she raised her family and currently serves.
"This means I will now have the challenge of communicating with tens of thousands of new voters -- even as Democrats like my opponent lie and mischaracterize my record -- and I'm depending on you to provide the resources necessary to make that happen."
This is not Bachmann's first battle with the Occupy movement. In December Occupy protestors were arrested outside of her Iowa headquarters during her stint as a GOP presidential primary candidate. She viewed the demonstration as an attack from Obama.
“The people outside are President Obama’s re-election advance team. That’s what you’re seeing outside. What they recognize is that I’m the greatest threat to Barack Obama’s re-election and I intend to be,” she said to reporters the day of the arrests.
Bachmann has served six years as a congresswoman for Minnesota's sixth district.