Gun safety groups planning to spend millions to turn Texas blue this year are rolling out their first round of ads, which say COVID-19 isn’t the only public health crisis facing the state.
Everytown for Gun Safety, the Michael Bloomberg-backed group that plans to spend $8 million in Texas this year, is launching $250,000 in digital ads targeting Republicans including Houston-area U.S. Reps. Dan Crenshaw and Michael McCaul, as well as Central Texas U.S. Rep. Chip Roy.
The group shared the plan exclusively with Hearst Newspapers. It includes ads targeting Central Texas U.S. Rep. John Carter and Beth Van Duyne, a former mayor of Irving running for a Dallas-area congressional seat. The ads say the Republicans “ignored our safety” by opposing universal background checks and other gun laws.
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Everytown isn’t alone in targeting Texas, the top target in 2020 for groups pushing for more restrictive gun laws. BradyPAC, the political affiliate of one of the country’s oldest gun violence prevention groups, plans to spend more than $500,000 on elections in the state, more than it’s spending anywhere in the nation by far.
See here for the background. I approve of the target list, though I assume at some point these groups will turn to the State House races, since taking over the State House serves the goal of winning and holding Congress as well. But part of this is just about boosting Dem turnout, in the places where it grew the most in 2018. That should lift all the boats. The Trib, which has a longer story, has more.
It’s always wise to be nervous about out of state money flipping races, but I think the central issue can be neutralized by simply showing clips of Beto’s Howard Dean ‘Yeaaaah!’ moment. Simply clarify for Texans what Everytown and Brady (Handgun Control Inc.) are really about, and I think Texans will at minimum discount the gun angle, because Texans of all political affiliations enjoy their guns and won’t want to give them up. That then puts the races back where they were, about all other issues. The fervently pro and anti gun folks aren’t going to be swayed by gun advertising, it’s the wishy washy middle that will have to decide what issues are most important to them.
Speaking of flipping, let’s talk about Lizzie “I won’t be beholden to Nancy Pelosi” Fletcher, who ran as a centrist. She’s now got a strong voting record, voting for all those bills that are in Cocaine Mitch’s desk, dying of asphyxiation and lack of sunlight. All those extreme votes are now fair game for a suburban district that has a whole lot of oil and gas workers. I wonder how they are going to feel when they find out they didn’t elect a moderate, and that yes, they did elect someone in lock step with Pelosi?
Fletcher should be worried. Her ‘moderate’ mask has been ripped off.
This is good. Any voter that supports open bully is a never Democratic voter.
Although, I wish we saw more action at the state level. If people vote for the state legislature, theyll vote up to Congress and President.