Everytown for Gun Safety pumping $8 million into Texas races for House, Congress - The Dallas Morning News

AUSTIN — A national gun control advocacy group with financial backing from Democratic presidential candidate Mike Bloomberg is pumping $8 million into Texas races this election, with the goal of flipping the state House and returning vulnerable Democrats to Congress.

Everytown for Gun Safety unveiled plans Wednesday to use the same strategies it employed last year in Virginia, where Democrats won control of the state house for the first time in two decades. Since then, Virginia lawmakers have advanced proposals to expand background checks and limit handgun purchases, but a bill to ban assault-style weapons stalled this week.

“We believe Texas can be the next emerging battleground, with gun safety as the tipping point,” Shannon Watts, founder of Moms Demand Action, said during a call announcing the initiative. “The state is becoming younger and increasingly diverse. And after years of failure by leaders to address gun violence, it’s become a top issue for voters, especially in the suburbs.”

Over a third of the group’s state House targets are in North Texas, as is a congressional seat held by freshman Democrat Colin Allred it is seeking to defend.

Everytown for Gun Safety is planning to plow at least $60 million into elections across the country this year, doubling its spending from last cycle. The group’s ads in Texas will target suburban voters, particularly women — a key demographic in many swing districts this cycle. A network of roughly 400,000 Texas supporters of Moms Demand Action will block-walk and staff phone banks for candidates, in addition to registering voters, Watts said.

“We’ll be bringing financial resources to bear, as well as an unprecedented grassroots army to engage on the ground as well,” said Chris Carr, political director for Everytown for Gun Safety.

Gun issues are expected to play a role in the fall elections, after Texas experienced a series of mass shootings in the past three years that left dozens dead across the state.

More than 80% of Texans support expanding background checks and almost 70% back so-called red flag laws, which let law enforcement remove guns from those deemed dangerous by a judge, according to a recent Dallas Morning News-University of Texas at Tyler poll.

A vast majority of Texans want stronger gun laws, said Hilary Rand Whitfield, volunteer leader with the Texas chapter of Moms Demand Action.

“Politically and culturally, Texas has always been a unique state, but we are sick and tired of being known for the gun violence that happens here,” she said.

Still, gun rights groups have a strong foothold in Texas, where they’ve successfully pushed the Republican-led Legislature to make it easier for people to carry loaded guns in schools, on college campuses and in houses of worship.

Mike Cox, legislative director of the Texas State Rifle Association, called Everytown for Gun Safety’s planned investment in the state “mind-boggling." While the TSRA can’t match the spending, he said, the group will be mobilizing its 35,000 members this election cycle.

In a recent email to supporters, the association claimed victory after a Republican won a state House special election last month in which TSRA had sent direct mail and run digital ads. But it also warned of further spending by outside groups.

“When Santa Anna came to take our guns, everybody had to work in their own way,” Cox said. “That’s what we are hoping to be able to do with our membership and other groups.”

Democrats need to flip nine seats to take control of the Texas House.

Though Everytown for Gun Safety is nonpartisan and says it has an objective to elect a “gun sense majority to the state House, regardless of party," all 10 legislative seats targeted in the Dallas-area are held by Republicans, several of whom narrowly won reelection in 2018.

Eight of those seats are held Reps. Lynn Stucky of Denton, Matt Shaheen and Jeff Leach of Plano, Matt Krause and Craig Goldman of Fort Worth, Tony Tinderholt of Arlington, Morgan Meyer of Dallas and Angie Chen Button of Richardson. The other two are being vacated by Reps. Jonathan Stickland of Bedford and Bill Zedler of Arlington.

“I am not sure you can spend enough money to want Texans to give up their Second Amendment rights,” Krause said. “But I look forward to a vigorous campaign season where we get to draw the contrast between candidates who stand firm on the Second Amendment and others who are more aligned with Beto O’Rourke and policies that would take guns away from law-abiding citizens.”

Of the six state House seats Everytown for Gun Safety is trying to defend, one is held by freshman Democratic Rep. Ana-Maria Ramos of Richardson. Two Republicans are vying to face off against Ramos in the general election, including Linda Koop, who used to hold the seat.

“I haven’t spoken with anybody, but I think it’s wonderful,” Ramos said of the support. “This is an area where people want sensible gun reform."

Many of the other races, both congressional and legislative, are in the Houston area.

Everytown for Gun Safety is not participating in the primaries, said Carr, who declined to disclose how the money would be divided among the Texas districts.

While gun safety is a prominent issue after the mass shootings, the issue is likely to be second-tier in the coming election, with Democratic candidates largely focusing on health care and economic disparity, said Mark Jones, a Rice University political scientist.

“Most of the polling suggests that voters are going to look negatively on a candidate who opposes background checks and opposes red flag legislation, but aren’t necessarily going to look as negatively if a candidate supports a ban on assault rifles,” he said. “Gun control is sort of a slope, depending on where you are on the [scale] it can work against or for you.”

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Everytown for Gun Safety pumping $8 million into Texas races for House, Congress - The Dallas Morning News
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