Sen. John Cornyn’s (R-Texas) marketing campaign is rolling out 4 new advertisements attacking Texas Legal professional Common and Senate candidate Ken Paxton (R) for cash his workplace gave to a number of Texas entities, accusing Paxton of “funding the left.”
The advertisements, roughly 30 seconds every and shared first with The Hill, criticize Paxton for issuing grant cash to Legal Aid of NorthWest Texas, the Tahirih Justice Center, the Montrose Center , and Texas RioGrande Legal Aid, insinuating that the organizations run counter to Republicans on points associated to immigration and gender.
For instance, a narrator in one of many advertisements accuses the Montrose Heart of providing “gender packages for youngsters as younger as seven,” noting that they’ve hosted “child-accessible drag reveals.”
The Montrose Heart, a bunch serving the LGBTQIA+ Houston group, affords numerous companies, together with case administration and counseling. The group has beforehand hosted occasions which have included drag reveals – occasions which have nationally drawn scorn and scrutiny from some Republicans.
The advert can be doubtless referencing the middle’s Hatch Youth, which the middle describes as “Houston’s oldest, presently energetic social group devoted to empowering LGBTQIA+ youth and younger adults between the ages of seven and 24.”
Cornyn’s workforce advised The Hill that the advertisements are a part of a five-figure digital purchase.
Cornyn marketing campaign senior adviser Matt Mackowiak alleged that the grants had value thousands and thousands of taxpayer {dollars} “accredited that went to radical left organizations that don’t share our conservative Texas values,” describing Paxton as “crooked” and suggesting that “Texans can not belief Ken Paxton.”
Paxton’s marketing campaign didn’t reply to a request for remark when contacted by The Hill relating to the advertisements.
The totally different teams talked about within the Cornyn marketing campaign advertisements have been accredited for various kinds of grants prior to now, largely below the “different sufferer help grant,” whose service areas embrace direct sufferer companies, sufferer companies coaching, outreach and training, sufferer help coordinator and crime sufferer liaison.
That hasn’t stopped a few of these teams from receiving scrutiny, nonetheless. Paxton investigated the Tahirih Justice Center, a recipient of Texas Bar Basis funding, in 2022 to see “whether or not these funds are getting used to exacerbate the present disaster on the border and to thwart the efforts of federal and state legislation enforcement to safe the border.”
Republicans are bracing for a bitter major between Cornyn and Paxton as Cornyn vies for a fifth time period within the Senate. Paxton has described Cornyn as a “RINO” or “Republican in identify solely” whereas Cornyn’s marketing campaign has known as Paxton a “fraud.”
The first is already laying naked divisions throughout the Texas GOP and will threaten Republicans’ probabilities of holding the seat. A poll commissioned by the Senate Leadership Fund, released this month, discovered Paxton main Cornyn 56 % to 40 %.
When Rep. Wesley Hunt (R-Texas) is added into the combination, the polling finds 44 % behind Paxton, 34 % behind Cornyn and 19 % behind Hunt. However the polling additionally confirmed that Cornyn did the very best among the many three Republicans in a hypothetical matchup towards former Rep. Colin Allred (D-Texas), who might launch a second Senate marketing campaign.
President Trump has notably not weighed in on the Texas Senate GOP major.
“They’re each buddies of mine. They’re each good males. And I don’t know. We don’t know who else is operating, however these two— Ken, John —they’re each buddies of mine. So I’ll make a dedication on the proper time,” the president said on Air Force One last month.