Newsom runs ads in Texas newspapers hitting Abbott on guns, abortion

California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) is running an ad in three Texas newspapers criticizing Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) for his record on guns and abortion.

The effort comes after Newsom ran television ads in Florida criticizing that state’s GOP governor, Ron DeSantis. The ads have fed suggestions that Newsom could run for president in 2024.

The ads in Texas replace the word “abortion” with “gun violence” and “Texas” with “California” in an effort to use Abbott’s words against him.

“Our creator endows us with the right to life. And yet … children lose their right to life every year because of” gun violence,” the Newsom ad reads after the two words are crossed out and replaced. “In California, we work to save those lives.”

The ad was published in the Austin American-Statesman, Houston Chronicle and El Paso Times, NBC News first reported.

Beneath the quote, Newsom writes: “These were Governor Abbott’s words when he signed SB 8 into law, essentially banning abortion in the state of Texas.”

Newsom’s ad promotes California’s S.B. 1327, a gun law that mirrors the abortion law.

The law allows Californians to file private lawsuits against other citizens over “ghost guns,” or weapons made or sold illegally.

That element of the law responds to a controversial section of Abbott’s abortion law that allows Texans to sue others who acquire or aid a woman in acquiring an abortion.

“If Texas can ban abortion and endanger lives, California can ban deadly weapons of war and save lives,” Newsom writes in the ad.

Newsom has recently taken an aggressive stance toward Republicans, thought to be part of a strategy behind a potential 2024 presidential run.

Early this month, Newsom aired an ad in Florida slamming DeSantis for his wave of controversial legislation, including a bill banning public school teachers from discussing sexual orientation with children from kindergarten through third grade.

“I urge all of you who live in Florida to join the fight, or join us in California, where we still believe in freedom, freedom of speech, freedom to choose, freedom from hate and the freedom to love,” Newsom says in the ad.