Gov. Greg Abbott is wasting no time using his campaign war chest to try to overwhelm Democratic challenger Gina Hinojosa.<\/p>\n
After Hinojosa put about $900,000 into a pair of ads that are mostly appearing on cable and digital platforms, Abbott responded with $7 million of ads promoting his campaign\u00a0during hundreds of commercial breaks in all the biggest markets. That includes\u00a0spots on\u00a0local news programs, primetime TV and time during Dallas Cowboys and Houston Texans preseason games.<\/p>\n
Abbott’s ad focuses on<\/a> his plan to slash property taxes and a law that bans transgender athletes from playing on girls sports teams in Texas.<\/p>\n The early spending is not a surprise given Abbott was sitting on $67 million in his campaign account at the start of July, according to state campaign finance records. Hinojosa had just $3 million.<\/p>\n Hinojosa knows a deluge of ads are coming.<\/p>\n \u201cAbbott is about to flood the airwaves, and we can’t afford to get drowned out,\u201d she told her supporters in a fundraising email last week.\u00a0<\/p>\n Surely, Hinojosa\u2019s campaign can\u2019t match the Republican governor dollar-for-dollar. Instead, she is having to be very strategic in how she buys time. On Tuesday, she launched a new ad blasting Abbott<\/a> for taking $20 million\u00a0in campaign contributions from data center companies at a time there\u2019s strong backlash from\u00a0rural Texas.<\/p>\n The 30-second ads are mostly airing in smaller markets like Abilene and San Angelo. Those markets are cheaper, but also where major data center projects have stirred up local communities.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cGreg Abbott is selling you out,\u201d the ads flash on the screen.<\/p>\n