Democratic super PAC to bankroll $6.2M ad blitz to help flip Texas House

AUSTIN — A Democratic super PAC focused on turning statehouses blue is pouring $6.2 million into 18 Texas House races, 10 of them in the Dallas-Fort Worth region, the group announced Tuesday.

The Forward Majority Action political action committee said it will make independent expenditures on digital, mail and TV ads to aid Democratic challengers to the last remaining GOP House incumbents from Dallas County, Reps. Morgan Meyer and Angie Chen Button.

It’s also targeting two Republican House members in Collin County, Reps. Matt Shaheen and Jeff Leach, both of Plano. The group also will play in five races for state representative in Tarrant County and one in Denton County.

The goal is winning control of the Texas House to stop an expected, third consecutive time that state Republicans alone are able to draw maps for U.S. House and the Legislature to maximize their party’s odds of maintaining control, said David Cohen, co-founder of Forward Majority.

“As we look around the country, we see Texas as one of the most important points of leverage in rebalancing the national balance of power — and that comes from drawing fair maps,” he said. “The future of power in America is in Texas.”

Also Tuesday, the group announced plans to also spend in state legislative races in three other Sunbelt states where the GOP currently controls the legislature — Arizona ($2.8 million), Florida ($2.5 million) and North Carolina ($250,000).

According to the Center for Responsive Politics, in the 2018 cycle, Forward Majority’s biggest donors were LinkedIn cofounder Reid Hoffman and Washington-based dark money group The Sixteen Thirty Fund, each of which gave $1 million; and the family of Fort Worth’s David Bonderman, cofounder of the private equity giant TPG, which gave at least $937,500.

Texas and the other three states that Forward Majority is targeting are among those most likely to gain new seats after the 2020 census, because of population gains.

Texas Democrats need a net gain of just nine seats to grab control of the 150-member House.

President Donald Trump has alienated many in the suburbs of Texas and the other three states, Cohen said. Legislative districts that were gerrymandered to benefit Republicans have undergone rapid demographic change, and the GOP politicians now representing them are no longer necessarily in sync with voters, he said.

“What we’ve seen nationally with the suburban revolt against Trump is that has accelerated the transition that was already underway from red to purple, at the very least, if not red to blue in the suburbs,” he said.

The other North Texas House districts where the group plans to spend money include those in Tarrant County in which GOP Reps. Matt Krause and Craig Goldman, both of Fort Worth, and Tony Tinderholt of Arlington are seeking reelection; and two being vacated by retiring Republicans Jonathan Stickland of Bedford and Bill Zedler of Arlington.

In Denton County, Rep. Lynn Stucky, R-Denton, is another target of the Democratic super PAC.