.@lamantia4texas up with this ad in #SD27 hitting @ElectAHinojosa on ESAs/vouchers. #txlege pic.twitter.com/nobOXe2oKF

— Brad Johnson (@bradj_TX) October 9, 2024

Rookie Dem Solon Paints GOP Foe
as School Vouchers Scammer in Ad

Capitol Inside
October 9, 2024

Democratic State Senator Morgan LaMantia of Brownsville warned voters on Wednesday that public schools would suffer while local taxes soar if Republicans in Austin pass a school choice plan that her opponent Adam Hinojosa favors despite its repeated failure during two decades of GOP rule in Texas.

The 28-second LaMantia spot portrays Hinojosa as an architect of a "vouchers scam" that would be "robbing our tax dollars for private schools" if the proposal clears the Texas Legislature in 2025 as Governor Greg Abbott expects.

LaMantia, who serves as the commercial's protagonist and narrator, contends that South Texas would have fewer teachers and schools if the vouchers measure becomes law. LaMantia said that local property taxes would "go through the roof" as a consequence of the need to compensate public schools for funds they would lose when taxpaper dollars are used to foot the bill for tuition and other costs associated with private education.

"Adam Hinojosa might be OK selling out our kids' teachers like that," LaMantia claims in the new ad. "But I'm not having it."

LaMantia is running for a second term in Senate District 27 - a swath of South Texas that's anchored in the Rio Grande Valley and reaches north to Corpus Christi. GOP leaders and lawmakers redesigned the district for a Republican to win on a new Senate map that went into effect for the 2022 election.

But LaMantia was elected that year when she defeated Hinojosa by 659 votes out of 175,415 that were cast in the newly redrawn SD 27. LaMantia received less than 50.2 percent in a development that prompted Hinojosa to consider a court challenge in an attempt to reverse the outcome.

Republicans had high hopes for Hinojosa when President Joe Biden was in line for the Democratic nomination in the White House race this fall. But Kamala Harris' emergence as Biden's replacement could dilute GOP visions of Donald Trump giving down-ballot contenders a boost in the Lone Star State where he had no effect in swing races in two previous races for president.

But LaMantia could have coattails herself for Democratic challenger Jonathan Gracia of Harlingen in a clash with rookie Republican State Rep. Janie Lopez of San Benito in an overlapping House District 37.

Democrats have a history of faring better in Texas in presidential election years. But Trump has been stronger in border areas than Republicans at the top of the ticket have been in the past. Capitol Inside has the HD 37 and SD 27 seats ranked as leans Democrat with less than four weeks to go before the November 5 general election despite the gains he made in that part of the state in the last two election cycles.

The incumbent is a member of a wealthy family that holds enormous sway in the RGV and other border areas in Texas. LaMantia has been loaded for the re-election race - having amassed a war chest that's contained more than $5 million during the current cycle with nearly $4.3 million in loans from relatives to her campaign. LaMantia raised almost $303,000 during the most recent reporting period from July to late September. But she topped that off with $2.5 million more in loans from family members - twice the total amount of money that Hinojosa has raised for the rematch..

Hinojosa rounded up contributions of nearly $1.1 million during the three-month reporting period that ended on September 26. But the GOP challenger only reported expenditures of $5,275 in the same period when LaMantia shelled out $2.9 million for her campaign.

more to come ...