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WASHINGTON — Congressional Republicans will spend hundreds of thousands on tv advertisements this fall focusing on Texas Democrats for supporting pro-LGBTQ+ laws — a guess that situation will resonate greater than the border or financial system.
The Nationwide Republican Congressional Committee unveiled its first Texas advert of the final election on Tuesday, accusing U.S. Rep. Vicente Gonzalez, D-McAllen, of pushing “sex changes for kids.” U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, additionally unveiled Tuesday his marketing campaign’s largest advert purchase but for two advertisements accusing challenger U.S. Rep. Colin Allred, D-Dallas, of supporting laws that enables males to make use of girls’s restrooms and never realizing “the difference between boys and girls.”
Democrats and LGBTQ+ advocacy teams criticized the assaults as peddling harmful and false narratives about transgender youth. Gonzalez and Allred additionally stated the advertisements have been a mischaracterization of their stances.
“The rhetoric is truly alarming, and trans Texans have dealt with a lot. They don’t need their lives politicized,” stated Johnathan Gooch, communications director at Equality Texas, an LGBTQ+ political rights group. “I think most Texans care about their grocery bill more than they care about anything else.”
Democrats query the technique of focusing so closely on the problem versus others which have repeatedly come up in polling and focus teams as on the prime of voters’ minds, such because the financial system and the border.
“Voters won’t fall for baseless and desperate lies about Vicente Gonzalez’s record,” Democratic Congressional Marketing campaign Committee spokesperson Lauryn Fanguen stated in an announcement. “While Mayra Flores voted against lowering health care and drug costs and would jeopardize Social Security and Medicare, Vicente Gonzalez is working every day to lower costs for Valley families.”
The dimensions of the advert buys signifies that Republicans view the message as a significant pillar of their electoral technique. The Cruz marketing campaign stated the 2 advertisements are a part of a $6.7 million advert purchase in coordination with the Republican Get together of Texas — the largest advert purchase by the marketing campaign thus far. For comparability, Cruz introduced a $4.4 million funding in Hispanic outreach in July, which featured broadcast promoting, digital outreach, billboards, textual content messaging and telephone banking.
The NRCC’s advert in opposition to Gonzalez is the group’s first advert within the state this cycle. Republicans hope to flip the seat, which is amongst its highest priorities this fall. Former U.S. Rep. Mayra Flores is difficult Gonzalez for the South Texas seat. Their advert is a part of an $800,000 advert reservation within the Harlingen market and might be broadcast in each English and Spanish.
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Republicans have additionally poured giant quantities of cash into attacking Democrats within the state on the border and financial system. Each emerged as the largest points within the state throughout the primaries and proceed to resonate with voters. However the NRCC present in polling and focus teams that messages linking Gonzalez to entry to gender transition surgical procedures for minors and with out parental consent was the highest performing to transform help for Flores, the group confirmed.
Polling by the College of Houston’s Interest College of Public Affairs confirmed {that a} majority of Texans responded unfavorably towards permitting transgender folks to decide on which toilet to make use of, take part in girls’s sports activities and obtain gender affirming care below 18. However a big majority of Texans — over 70% — help basic protections for LGBTQ+ folks from discrimination, in accordance with the Public Faith Analysis Institute.
The technique isn’t restricted to Texas. U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley launched an advert this week that includes Riley Gaines, a aggressive swimmer who has advocated in opposition to trans girls collaborating in girls’s sports activities.
The NRCC advert incorporates a man accusing Gonzalez of spending his time advocating for youth gender transition as an alternative of on financial points.
“How is that supposed to help our economy? He says, ‘Vicente con la gente.’ He’s not,” the advert says.
Gonzalez, a reasonable Democrat who has voted with Republicans prior to now, stated in an announcement to The Texas Tribune that he “never supported tax dollars paying for gender transition surgeries and never will.”
“If [Flores] wants to talk about things that actually hurt South Texans’ wallets, she should mention how she’s opposed lowering drug costs and healthcare prices — how she supports defunding Social Security and Medicare. Let’s let the record speak for itself,” Gonzalez stated.
The advert cites Gonzalez’s help for the Equality Act, which bars gender discrimination in public locations, together with primarily based on if an individual is transgender. The invoice handed the Home in 2021 with all Democrats voting sure however has stalled within the Senate.
Little one gender transition surgical procedure is exceedingly uncommon, in accordance with a July research by Harvard’s T.H. Chan College of Public Well being. Gender affirming take care of minors normally manifests in permitting kids to decorate how they need, altering pronouns and utilizing hormone blockers to delay puberty. The Texas Legislature handed a ban on hormone blockers for minors throughout final yr’s session.
Cruz’s advert additionally cited Allred’s help for the Equality Act and his vote in opposition to the Safety of Ladies and Ladies in Sports activities Act of 2023. That invoice would lower off federal funds for athletic packages that enable males, “based solely on a person’s reproductive biology and genetics at birth,” to compete in girls’s or women’ sports activities. The invoice handed the Home in 2023 with all Republicans supporting and all Democrats in opposition to. It additionally stalled within the Senate.
“Now our girls are being left in the dust, robbed of their right to compete freely. And Colin Allred voted in Congress to oppose Texas state law that protects women’s sports,” the advert stated. “Colin Allred voted to allow boys in girls’ bathrooms, boys in girls’ locker rooms, boys in girls’ sports.”
Allred’s marketing campaign blasted the advertisements as a “disgusting, false attack, and another example of how Ted Cruz only wants to divide Texans.”
Cruz will “say anything to distract from his dangerous abortion ban that is putting women’s lives at risk, trying to raise the retirement age for Social Security and Medicare and fleeing to Cancun during a deadly winter storm,” Josh Stewart, an Allred spokesperson, stated in an announcement.
Allred has been a vocal supporter for LGBTQ+ rights in Congress. He was a co-sponsor of a decision to create a “Transgender Bill of Rights to protect and codify the rights of transgender and nonbinary people under the law and ensure their access to medical care, shelter, safety, and economic security.”
Disclosure: Equality Texas and College of Houston have been monetary supporters of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan information group that’s funded partly by donations from members, foundations and company sponsors. Monetary supporters play no function within the Tribune’s journalism. Discover a full listing of them right here.
