August 27, 2020

Crenshaw Foe Reaps Donor Windfall after RNC
Appearance for Hero Speech Without President

By Mike Hailey
Capitol Inside Editor

Democratic challenger Sima Ladjevardian hit a fundraising gusher on Thursday after U.S. Rep. Dan Crenshaw delivered a speech at the Republican National Convention where he focused on his own heroics in wartime without saying a word about President Donald Trump.

A Houston attorney who's a native of Iran, Ladjevardian tweeted tonight that she'd scored more than $100,000 from more than a thousand contributors in a 24-hour period after the Crenshaw RNC tribute to American heroes complete with the unexpected presidential snub.

Ladjevardian had received a valuable public relations boost earlier in the day with an opinion piece in the Washington Post on how she has real chance to oust Crenshaw in the general election. Crenshaw's conspicuous omission of the president in the four-minute convention speech was a gift to the Democrat as well as a story she can interpret as a passive admission that he's scared about his first re-election race as a consequence of the close alliance he's had with Trump since arriving in Washington.

These are the kind of breaks that Ladjevardian can use in light of the massive campaign cash disadvantage that she faces heading into September in a fight with a rookie lawmaker who's been a fundraising wunderkind during his first term in Congress.

Crenshaw rounded up almost $8.9 million in the first 18 months of the 2020 election season when Ladjevardian raised nearly $1.6 million for her debut campaign. Only a half-dozen U.S. representatives have reported more in donor money than Crenshaw during the current cycle. The group that's raked in more than Crenshaw includes House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, U.S. Rep. Alexandria Osaso-Cortez of New York and U.S. Rep. Steve Scalise of Louisiana, the Louisiana Republican who was shot at a congressional baseball practice in 2017.

Crenshaw had more than $4 million in the campaign bank at the end of June when Ladjevardian reported a surplus of $545,000. But Crenshaw knows from experience that money has a diminishing value in the political arena after defeating a GOP primary runoff foe who had a monstrous war chest that was unrivaled on the congressional battlefield.

The high-profile Crenshaw cold shoulder gives the impression that he and other down-ballot Republicans might be ready to run from the president for the sake of simple survival with the president and the national climate that he's fueled as major liabilities.

Congressional District 2 - a creation of epic suburban gerrymandering - wraps from a sliver southwest of downtown Houston up the west side of the city where it curls back to the far northeast reaches of Harris County. Crenshaw's district has undergone a dramatic shift since Governor Greg Abbott won there with 63 percent of the vote in 2014 - the same share that Mitt Romney had reaped in CD 2 two years earlier. U.S. Senator John Cornyn claimed 66 percent of the vote in CD 2 in his last re-election race six years ago when he beat a Democrat by 36 percentage points.

But Trump defeated Hillary Clinton by a mere 9 points in CD 2 in 2016 before U.S. Senator Ted Cruz escaped with a one-point victory there two years later in a battle with Democrat Beto O'Rourke.

Crenshaw could find an attempt at Trump distancing to be a bare necessity and all but impossible challenge as well with a blue monsoon in the forecast for the fall. Crenshaw had been the president's most prominent defender during the first few months of the coronavirus - making cases on television and social media designed to debunk leftist myths about the Trump response to the COVID-19. Trump had pumped Crenshaw up in return with lavishing Twitter praise.

Crenshaw will be heading into the final phase of the competition with a self-inflicted wound from his participation in a GOP fundraiser in Travis County where hundreds of party loyalists celebrated without social distancing, masks or concerns about an official emergency limitation of public gatherings to 10 people. Crenshaw contended that he wore a mask throughout the event except when speaking and posing with supporters for photos - an activity that isn't exempt under the Abbott statewide mask order. Crenshaw had endorsed the face-covering requirement when the governor imposed it in July after blasting Democratic Hidalgo County Judge Lina Hidalgo for the same basic restriction in April.

The Travis County attorney and fire marshal are conducting investigations into the sweeping violations of state and local emergency requirements at the event that the local GOP organization sponsored outside of Austin. Cornyn attended the Ronald Reagan Gala in Bee Cave where U.S. Chip Roy of Austin and State Senators Dawn Buckingham of Austin and Donna Campbell of New Braunfels guests there as well.