ICYMI: New School Freedom Fund Ads Target Texas RINOs
Washington, D.C. – In case you missed it, Club for Growth Action’s allied Super PAC, School Freedom Fund, has launched a series of ads supporting primary challengers and targeting incumbent Republicans in the Texas State Legislature who failed to vote for Gov. Abbott’s educational freedom bill. The $1.15 million buy features 8 unique ads across numerous platforms, including cable and broadcast TV. Patrick Svitek from the Texas Tribune published an exclusive report on the new ads.
“Candidates need to realize they can’t claim to be conservative while simultaneously opposing school freedom and taking cash from radical education bureaucrats”, said School Freedom Fund President David McIntosh. “Voters will hold them accountable on Election Day.”
Click here to watch Proven Fighter, a School Freedom Fund ad highlighting Sen. Ted Cruz’s and Gov. Greg Abbott’s endorsement of Mike Olcott for Texas’ 60th State House District.
Click here to watch Problem, a School Freedom Fund ad exposing Travis Clardy for siding with Democrats on education policy and allowing critical race theory specialists to be involved in curriculum training.
STORY EXCERPTS:
Texas Republicans who defied Gov. Greg Abbott on school vouchers face mounting primary attacks
Texas Tribune, By Patrick Svitek
Texas House Republicans who tanked Gov. Greg Abbott’s school voucher agenda last year are facing a growing onslaught in their primaries as his long-promised revenge tour reaches its final month.
A national pro-voucher group, the School Freedom Fund, is launching a $1.15 million TV ad blitz across eight primaries Wednesday, part of a major ramp-up by Abbott’s allies on the issue.
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It all marks the long-telegraphed fallout from last year’s legislative sessions, when a group of House Republicans held firm against Abbott’s crusade for letting parents use taxpayers dollars to take their kids out of public schools.
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The School Freedom Fund is an arm of the Club for the Growth [Action], the national anti-tax group, and its new TV ad buy spans broadcast, cable and satellite across the eight districts. The buy targets Reps. Gary VanDeaver of New Boston, Travis Clardy of Nacogdoches, Ernest Bailes of Shepherd, Hugh Shine of Temple, DeWayne Burns of Cleburne, Glenn Rogers of Graford, Reggie Smith of Sherman and Steve Allison of San Antonio.
“Candidates need to realize they can’t claim to be conservative while simultaneously opposing school freedom and taking cash from radical education bureaucrats, and voters will hold them accountable on election day,” School Freedom Fund President David McIntosh said in a statement.
The messaging against the incumbents has been varied. One of School Freedom Fund’s ads specifically goes after Clardy for saying in a November TV interview that his district does not have a problem with “woke teachers.” The narrator then calls Clardy wrong and says the Nacogdoches school district “brought in a critical race theory specialist for curriculum training.”
Other attacks are casting the lawmakers’ votes against the voucher program as opposition to the other components of House Bill 1, including teacher pay raises and increased public school funding.