Democratic super PAC to launch six-figure ad buy backing Biden in Texas

A Democratic super PAC is expanding its ad buy backing presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden in Texas on the heels of a poll released Thursday showing Biden neck and neck with President Trump in the Lone Star State. 

The super PAC, MeidasTouch, released a new ad attacking Trump on Thursday. The PAC will air the new ad as part of an expanded six-figure ad buy in Texas that will feature ads in the Houston and Dallas television markets.

The new 30 second ad, titled “Trump is a Disaster,” highlights some of the president’s most controversial comments. 

The ad includes comments the president made earlier this week, stating well wishes to Ghislaine Maxwell, the longtime associate of Jeffrey Epstein who is awaiting a trial on charges that she helped recruit girls who were sexually abused. 

It also includes the president’s comments stating there were “very fine people on both sides,” after the deadly 2017 white supremacist rally and counter-protest in Virginia, as well as comments Trump made criticizing the late Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) over the veteran earning his Purple Heart. 

“Donald Trump is an undeniable embarrassment for America across the globe,” said Brett Meiselas, one of the founders of the PAC. “It is previously unthinkable and utterly tragic that we have a President who celebrates violent racists, protects treasonous criminals, and pals around with noted sex traffickers, but denigrates the disabled, maligns American war veterans and attacks mothers exercising their First Amendment rights. Trump is an absolute and unparalleled disaster.”

In announcing the expansion of ads in Texas, the super PAC highlighted a Quinnipiac University poll released Thursday that found Biden with a slim 1-point lead over Trump in the state. Biden had 45 percent support, while Trump had 44 percent. Biden’s lead was within the poll’s 3.3 percentage point margin of error, but it represented a shift in support from a similar poll in June when Trump had a 1-point lead over his Democratic challenger. 

The Biden campaign also launched its first general election TV ads in Texas last week. 

A Democratic presidential candidate has not won Texas since former President Carter in 1976, but after significant gains Democrats made at the House level in Texas in 2018, Democrats are viewing Texas as a more competitive state in the 2020 election.

Texas is among states the Democratic National Committee is targeting in the “Battleground Build Up 2020” program, including several other swing states Trump won in 2016. 

The Trump campaign fired back on Tuesday after Biden released ads in Texas, claiming the state is out of reach for Biden. 

“Democrats like to pretend Texas is on the table, but they know that’s a joke – just ask Governor Wendy Davis, Senator Beto O’Rourke, and President Hillary Clinton,” Samantha Zager, deputy national press secretary for the Trump campaign said in a statement, referencing Democratic candidates who have lost in Texas.