These anti-Trump ad buys by Democrats and the Lincoln Project show Texas is in play
By Gordon Dickson, Fort Worth Star-Telegram 7 mins ago
These anti-Trump ad buys by Democrats and the Lincoln Project show Texas is in play
Democrats and anti-Trump Republicans who have long said Texas would be up for grabs this election season are now putting their money where their mouths are.
The Texas Democratic Party is spending more than $1 million — much of it in Dallas-Fort Worth — on campaign ads aimed at getting Black voters to turn out for the Nov. 3 election, officials said Tuesday.
Also Tuesday, officials with the Lincoln Project, a political action committee founded by Republicans to actively campaign against President Trump, said they had committed to buy $1 million worth of ads in the Lone Star State.
Those decisions came days after Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden’s campaign bought $6 million worth of television air time in Texas, to be used throughout the month of October.
The infusion of cash into the campaigns is the latest evidence that Texas truly is “in play” as a toss-up state, Rice University political science professor Mark P. Jones said.
Trump is ahead of Biden in Texas by 1.9%, a statistical tie, according to a FiveThirtyEight polling average. In September, a Quinnipiac University poll showed Trump ahead with 50% of the Texas vote, compared to 45% for Biden, with a margin of error of 3 percentage points.
“It’s in play, in the sense that it’s not a lock (for Trump),” Jones said. “I don’t think anyone would credibly say Donald Trump is a lock to win in Texas. That said, it’s still a red state, albeit a little pinker than it was in the past.”
Jones added that anti-Trump advertisements could also hurt other Republican candidates in state and federal races in areas such as Tarrant County.
U.S. John Cornyn, R-Texas, is ahead with 50% of support, compared to his Democratic opponent MJ Hegar’s 42%, according to the Quinnipiac poll, which included interviews with voters Sept. 17-21.
In the Dallas-Fort Worth area, Republican Beth Van Duyne is in a tough contest against Candace Valenzuela for U.S. House District 24, which includes much of Northeast Tarrant County and parts of north Dallas and south Denton County.
In the Texas Legislature, Republican incumbent state Rep. Tony Tinderholt of Arlington faces a challenge from Democrat Alisa Simmons.
Those North Texas battles for state and federal legislative seats are in areas where demographics have changed dramatically in recent years, with more people of color, more college graduates and more people born outside of the United States.
State Republican Party officials condemned the Lincoln Project’s Texas strategy, and vowed to respond on the campaign trail.
“It is highly disturbing and quite disgusting that a group of so-called Republican strategists using the name Lincoln Project is planning to spend $1M in Texas against President Trump. It is equally despicable that these political traitors would call their endeavor Operation Sam Houston,” Texas GOP chairman Allen West said in a statement.
“Why would these individuals desire to support a progressive socialist agenda that embraces the rule of the mob, defunds our law enforcement, would decimate our oil and gas industry, advocates for open borders and taxpayer funding of illegal immigrants, murders unborn babies right up to birth, and eliminate our individual rights, namely the Second Amendment?” West said.
Republican leaders in Texas have long downplayed the assertion that Democrats, emboldened by Beto O’Rourke’s narrow loss to Ted Cruz in the 2018 campaign for a U.S. Senate seat, are poised to gain significant ground in Texas in 2020.
“If they want to come spend money in Texas, and they think this is a battleground state, let them come spend their money unwisely,” Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick said last month during a stop of a Trump bus tour in Bedford.
Getting out the Black vote
Officials at the Texas Democratic Party said most of their new ads would appear in digital, print and radio outlets with a large Black audience. They said the new purchases were in the “high-six figures,” but that combined with ads already purchased would amount to more than $1 million aimed at getting out the Black vote.
Much of the new campaigning is in Dallas-Fort Worth, where several state and federal offices once considered Republican strongholds are now believed to be up for grabs for Democrats.
Other ads will appear in Houston, Longview, Marshall and Tyler.
“Donald Trump, Greg Abbott, and the rest of the Texas Republicans fear what will happen if Black voters exercise our power in this state,” Carla Brailey, Texas Democratic Party vice chair, said in a statement. She was referring to Abbott’s decision last week to limit mail-in voting drop-off sites to one per county, which Democrats said amounted to voter suppression.
“That is why they continue to try to make it harder for us to vote at every chance they get. We won’t let them win,” Brailey said. “Together, we will rise up and defeat every attempt to stop us from voting. Greg Abbott tried it this past week but we will overcome and continue to move forward.”
In addition to urging Black residents to vote, the ads will focus on economic recovery, racial justice and affordable health care.
Examples of some outlets that will run the ads, according to Democratic Party officials, include KKDA 104.5-FM, a Dallas urban contemporary station; KRNB 107.5-FM, a Dallas R&B station, the Dallas Examiner and the Dallas Weekly.
‘Operation Sam Houston’
Lincoln Project officials, who frequently use social media to target the president, said their spots would highlight Trump’s encouragement of violence and extremism. Spokesperson Nate Nesbitt said the campaign, dubbed “Operation Sam Houston,” would include a large volume of television and digital advertising statewide.
“Texas has been moving towards a swing state for many cycles now and Donald Trump has dramatically accelerated that trend,” Mike Madrid, co-founder of The Lincoln Project, wrote in an email. “The polling data is undeniable and has been consistent for months — Republican voters are leaving Trump and Democrats are historically energized to turn him out of office. We see an opportunity in Texas and we are going to take advantage of it.”
Lincoln Project intends to run some of the ads it has run in other markets, as well as some Texas-specific ads — including Spanish-language spots aimed at Hispanics. The ads also will target 642,000 suburban and rural Republican women, Nesbitt said.
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By Gordon Dickson, Fort Worth Star-Telegram 7 mins ago
These anti-Trump ad buys by Democrats and the Lincoln Project show Texas is in play
Democrats and anti-Trump Republicans who have long said Texas would be up for grabs this election season are now putting their money where their mouths are.
The Texas Democratic Party is spending more than $1 million — much of it in Dallas-Fort Worth — on campaign ads aimed at getting Black voters to turn out for the Nov. 3 election, officials said Tuesday.
Also Tuesday, officials with the Lincoln Project, a political action committee founded by Republicans to actively campaign against President Trump, said they had committed to buy $1 million worth of ads in the Lone Star State.
Those decisions came days after Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden’s campaign bought $6 million worth of television air time in Texas, to be used throughout the month of October.
The infusion of cash into the campaigns is the latest evidence that Texas truly is “in play” as a toss-up state, Rice University political science professor Mark P. Jones said.
Trump is ahead of Biden in Texas by 1.9%, a statistical tie, according to a FiveThirtyEight polling average. In September, a Quinnipiac University poll showed Trump ahead with 50% of the Texas vote, compared to 45% for Biden, with a margin of error of 3 percentage points.
“It’s in play, in the sense that it’s not a lock (for Trump),” Jones said. “I don’t think anyone would credibly say Donald Trump is a lock to win in Texas. That said, it’s still a red state, albeit a little pinker than it was in the past.”
Jones added that anti-Trump advertisements could also hurt other Republican candidates in state and federal races in areas such as Tarrant County.
U.S. John Cornyn, R-Texas, is ahead with 50% of support, compared to his Democratic opponent MJ Hegar’s 42%, according to the Quinnipiac poll, which included interviews with voters Sept. 17-21.
In the Dallas-Fort Worth area, Republican Beth Van Duyne is in a tough contest against Candace Valenzuela for U.S. House District 24, which includes much of Northeast Tarrant County and parts of north Dallas and south Denton County.
In the Texas Legislature, Republican incumbent state Rep. Tony Tinderholt of Arlington faces a challenge from Democrat Alisa Simmons.
Those North Texas battles for state and federal legislative seats are in areas where demographics have changed dramatically in recent years, with more people of color, more college graduates and more people born outside of the United States.
State Republican Party officials condemned the Lincoln Project’s Texas strategy, and vowed to respond on the campaign trail.
“It is highly disturbing and quite disgusting that a group of so-called Republican strategists using the name Lincoln Project is planning to spend $1M in Texas against President Trump. It is equally despicable that these political traitors would call their endeavor Operation Sam Houston,” Texas GOP chairman Allen West said in a statement.
“Why would these individuals desire to support a progressive socialist agenda that embraces the rule of the mob, defunds our law enforcement, would decimate our oil and gas industry, advocates for open borders and taxpayer funding of illegal immigrants, murders unborn babies right up to birth, and eliminate our individual rights, namely the Second Amendment?” West said.
Republican leaders in Texas have long downplayed the assertion that Democrats, emboldened by Beto O’Rourke’s narrow loss to Ted Cruz in the 2018 campaign for a U.S. Senate seat, are poised to gain significant ground in Texas in 2020.
“If they want to come spend money in Texas, and they think this is a battleground state, let them come spend their money unwisely,” Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick said last month during a stop of a Trump bus tour in Bedford.
Getting out the Black vote
Officials at the Texas Democratic Party said most of their new ads would appear in digital, print and radio outlets with a large Black audience. They said the new purchases were in the “high-six figures,” but that combined with ads already purchased would amount to more than $1 million aimed at getting out the Black vote.
Much of the new campaigning is in Dallas-Fort Worth, where several state and federal offices once considered Republican strongholds are now believed to be up for grabs for Democrats.
Other ads will appear in Houston, Longview, Marshall and Tyler.
“Donald Trump, Greg Abbott, and the rest of the Texas Republicans fear what will happen if Black voters exercise our power in this state,” Carla Brailey, Texas Democratic Party vice chair, said in a statement. She was referring to Abbott’s decision last week to limit mail-in voting drop-off sites to one per county, which Democrats said amounted to voter suppression.
“That is why they continue to try to make it harder for us to vote at every chance they get. We won’t let them win,” Brailey said. “Together, we will rise up and defeat every attempt to stop us from voting. Greg Abbott tried it this past week but we will overcome and continue to move forward.”
In addition to urging Black residents to vote, the ads will focus on economic recovery, racial justice and affordable health care.
Examples of some outlets that will run the ads, according to Democratic Party officials, include KKDA 104.5-FM, a Dallas urban contemporary station; KRNB 107.5-FM, a Dallas R&B station, the Dallas Examiner and the Dallas Weekly.
‘Operation Sam Houston’
Lincoln Project officials, who frequently use social media to target the president, said their spots would highlight Trump’s encouragement of violence and extremism. Spokesperson Nate Nesbitt said the campaign, dubbed “Operation Sam Houston,” would include a large volume of television and digital advertising statewide.
“Texas has been moving towards a swing state for many cycles now and Donald Trump has dramatically accelerated that trend,” Mike Madrid, co-founder of The Lincoln Project, wrote in an email. “The polling data is undeniable and has been consistent for months — Republican voters are leaving Trump and Democrats are historically energized to turn him out of office. We see an opportunity in Texas and we are going to take advantage of it.”
Lincoln Project intends to run some of the ads it has run in other markets, as well as some Texas-specific ads — including Spanish-language spots aimed at Hispanics. The ads also will target 642,000 suburban and rural Republican women, Nesbitt said.
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