Iowa Republican state Sen. Zach Nunn, who is running against Rep. Cindy Axne (D-IA) in the Hawkeye State’s Third Congressional District, slammed his opponent for claiming his stance on border security and protecting the southern border is “racist” and “wrong.”

“We are facing a national security and a humanitarian crisis on our southern border, and it’s really made every county in our America, including folks in my home state of Iowa, a border county, in a result of it,” Nunn said on Fox News’s Fox & Friends on Wednesday.

“I’ve served on militarily operations to protect the southern border. Our opponent and the Biden administration seem to turn a blind eye to this,” the Republican continued. “And the reality now is that they are calling folks racist because they don’t have a plan on how they are going to secure it.”

“We talked to Customs and Border Patrol; my opponent would call them racist, one of the most diverse agencies in the federal government today,” he explained to Fox & Friends. “Communities like mine have seen an influx of illegal drugs, primarily deadly fentanyl, that now kills more Americans ages 18 to my age than anything else in the country. Well, if we try to stop it, then we must be racist.”

Nunn’s comments come after Axne called a recent campaign mailer “racist and wrong” that showed Nunn “flew missions on the southern border” and worked to “secure the border and stop the flood of illegal immigrants bringing crime and drugs into our country.”

“This is what Zach Nunn said, he’s ‘working to secure the border to stop the flood of illegal immigrants bringing crime and drugs into our country.’ We cannot have people like that in the highest levels of government in this country who automatically believe that folks who are from another place are criminals,” Axne said at a campaign event.

“That is absolutely racist and wrong,” she continued. “It sets a terrible precedent for citizens in this country to think badly about other folks when it’s not true. And leadership at the highest levels, as I’ve seen over the last few years, has become very predominant in people’s everyday lives.”

“We don’t need any more folks who are trying to divide our country and pit us against each other because of the color of our skin,” Axne added.

Nunn is looking to unseat Axne in the upcoming midterm elections, which would not only make the Hawkeye State a solid Republican-represented state if the other GOP candidates successfully hold onto their seats but also help the House Republicans in the party’s larger goal of regaining the majority in the House.

If the Republican can successfully unseat Axne, it will play a key role in helping out their larger goal of netting five seats to win back a GOP majority and oust Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) from her speakership.

For the Republicans to take back the House majority, they only need to unseat five Democrats, so congressional districts like Axne’s in Iowa play a significant role in the GOP’s effort.

This midterm election will be the second time the Republicans attempt to take back the majority from the Democrats after losing it in 2018 for the first time in eight years. In the 2020 election, the Republicans tried to take back the House but fell short, leaving the left with a tiny majority, something the establishment media said would not be possible, as it claimed the GOP would lose even more seats.

Ultimately, the Democrats lost 13 seats in the House in 2020, which reduced their majority margin from 36 to five.

For Republicans, winning the majority will require a net gain of only five seats in November, and much is on the line in both the House and the Senate, where they only need to net one seat. Republicans winning either one could mean the Democrats and President Joe Biden will have more difficulty passing their agenda before the next presidential election.

Jacob Bliss is a reporter for Breitbart News. Write to him at jbliss@breitbart.com or follow him on Twitter @JacobMBliss.