GOP set to book $2.2M in local ads

National Republicans are reserving $2.2 million in TV ads in San Antonio and $405,000 in Midland-odessa in the final weeks leading up to the November election.

The regions both make up portions of the 23rd Congressional District, where Republican Tony Gonzales is running in a hotly contested race to replace retiring U.S. Rep. Will Hurd, R-helotes. The National Republican Congressional Committee will run the ads from Sept. 29 to Nov. 2, a GOP source confirmed Wednesday.

The 23rd is a perennial swing district that stretches from San Antonio to El Paso and covers 800 miles of border. There, Gonzales will face off against Democrat Gina Ortiz Jones, who is running for a second time after nearly unseating Hurd in 2018. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee has already confirmed a $1 million ad reservation in San Antonio, and other third-party groups have committed hundreds of thousands of dollars to run ads against Gonzales.

The non-partisan Cook Political Report has rated the 23rd district as “lean Democratic.”

The area where the ads will air also includes part of the 21st Congressional District, which stretches from just inside Loop 410 on San Antonio’s North Side to downtown Austin, but also takes in Bandera and Kerrville. In that district, freshman U.S. Rep. Chip Roy, a Republican, is facing off against Democrat Wendy Davis, a former state senator who ran an unsuccessful campaign for governor in 2014. The Cook Political Report has rated that race a toss-up.

Midland-odessa also includes the 11th Congressional District, though that is safely Republican.