By Patrick Svitek
New this morning: A national Democratic group is honing in on two Texas Republicans with a focus on campaign finance.
End Citizens United is putting U.S. Sen. John Cornyn and U.S. Rep. Will Hurd to its Big Money 20 target list, highlighting the seven-figure totals that each lawmaker has taken from corporate PACs over their political careers. And the group is using Cornyn’s seniority against him, branding the former Senate majority whip as “Mitch McConnell’s top lackey ensuring that the Republican tax bill passed the Senate” in 2017.
The Big Money 20 designation signals that a race is a priority for ECU, which spent over $10 million on its targets in 2018 and beat around 80% of them, including then-U.S. Rep. Pete Sessions of Dallas. There were two survivors in Texas, however: U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz — and Hurd.
ECU has already endorsed the Democrat who almost unseated Hurd last year and is running again, Gina Ortiz Jones. The group has also given its backing to one of the Democrats vying to take on Cornyn, MJ Hegar.