With ad, Crenshaw comes to the rescue
In what looks more like a movie trailer for the next Hollywood blockbuster than a campaign ad, Houston Congressman Dan Crenshawis trying to use his fame in the GOP— andmaybemore importantly share his donor base — to help five fellow Texas Republicans running for Congress.
In the nearly 4-minute video clip, Crenshaw, a retired Navy SEAL, plays the role of an action hero as he literally jumps out of an airplane on the way to recruit other Texas Republicans to run for office.
“Whosays campaign ads have to suck?” Crenshaw said in promoting the video on social media that directs his 1 million followers to a website called Texasreloaded.com to donate to a fund to help the five other candidates.
Crenshaw, 36, said theywere going for a Mission Impossiblemeets-the Avengers look.
Within 24 hours after it was
posted, the video had already been viewed more than 500,000 times on YouTube, Twitter and other social media platforms. And Crenshaw said the joint fundraising committee has already raised far more money than they spent on the ad.
That money is critical in several of those races, where the Democrats have bankrolled moremoney than Republicans heading into the final five weeks of the campaign.
Election Day is Nov. 3 with early voting set to begin on Oct. 13.
‘Trying to balance the scales’
Crenshaw said that with all of the outside money pouring in to help Democrats in those five races, the Republicans could use a fundraising boost.
“We’re trying to balance the scales a little bit,” he said.
Although just a freshman in Congress, Crenshaw has become a rising star in the party with a prolific fundraising operation. Crenshaw had already raised $9.3 million as of July 1 for his re-election — more than all but six of the 435 members of Congress. Among the few ahead of him are top congressional leaders such as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a Democrat, and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, a Republican.
In the ad, after parachuting onto an airbase, Crenshaw recruits Houston Republican Wesley Hunt, a retired U.S. Army Apache helicopter pilot. Next is August Pfluger, a retired F-22 Air Force pilot, as their military experience and campaign districts flash on the screen. Hunt is running for the 7th Congressional District against U.S. Rep. Lizzie Fletcher, D-Houston. Pfluger is running in the 11th Congressional District, which extends from just outside of Fort Worth to Midland, against Democrat Jon Mark Hogg.
Later, Republicans Beth Van Dyne, Navy veteran Tony Gonzales and Genevieve Collins make appearances. Van Dyne is running in the 24th Congressional District in Dallas-Fort Worth against Democrat Candace Valenzuela. Gonzales faces Democrat Gina Ortiz Jones in the 23rd Congressional District, a swing district stretching from San Antonio to El Paso. And businesswoman Collins is running in the 32nd Congressional District, also in Dallas, where she is trying to knock out U.S. Rep. Colin Allred.
In three of those races, Democrats are seen as having an edge heading into November, according to the Cook Political Report in Washington, D.C. Fletcher, Allred and Jones are all favored in their races, while Van Dyne and Valenzuela are in a race considered a toss-up. Pfluger is favored over Hogg.
Fletcher, Jones and Allred all had massive fundraising advantages over their Republican opponents. Fletcher and Jones both had three times as much campaign money heading into the fall than Hunt and Gonzales, respectively. Allred wasn’t far behind, with nearly triple the funding of Collins.
Fewer Texas vets in Congress
Crenshaw himself has a race on his hands. He faces Democrat Sima Ladjevardian in the 2nd Congressional District, which runs from Humble to west Houston. In 2018, Crenshaw won the seat by 7 percentage points. The Cook Political Report favors Crenshaw to hold the seat but has listed it among nearly 100 of the most-competitive races in the nation.
Financially, Crenshaw has a massive edge over Ladjevardian, with more than seven times as much money.
The military theme in the video also highlights the candidates’ service background in key races. That comes as Texas has seen the number of veterans it has in Congress plummet for decades. Only six members of the state’s 36 U.S. House members have a military background. Two of them — U.S.
Reps Pete Olson, R-Sugar Land, and Michael Conaway, R-Midland — are retiring from Congress this year.
Olson is a Navy veteran, and Conaway was in the Army.
The other Texas veterans in Congress are U.S. Reps. Louie Gohmert, R-Tyler; Van Taylor, R-Plano, and Brian Babin, R-Woodville.
The drop in veterans is particularly notable for Texas because of the military’s huge footprint here. Texas has 15 active military bases, 1.6 million veterans and over 220,000 troops stationed in Texas bases, including both active duty and reserves.
In the 1970s, Texas had 16 veterans among its ranks in Congress.
Crenshaw said he only wishes he could have highlighted more of the veterans running for Congress in Texas. He said veterans in Congress have different problem-solving skills than others and have a camaraderie that helps them build coalitions that cross party lines. He said there is “a common bond and common trust” from the start with veterans, whether they are Democrats or Republicans.
Democrats have their share of veterans running aswell, including Air Force veterans Jones, of San Antonio, and U.S. Senate candidate MJ Hegar, a decorated Air Force pilot from Cedar Park, just north of Austin.