NEW AD: Hinojosa Releases First Ad of General Election During Spurs Game
Texas Tribune: “It’s a good time to be Team Texas, but Greg Abbott is not playing for us,” Hinojosa says in narrating the spot. “He’s coached by the corporations and billionaires that pay him off. So even when our team is winning, hardworking families across this state are losing.”
Austin, TX – Democratic nominee for Texas Governor Gina Hinojosa released her campaign’s first ad of the general election, which will air statewide beginning during tonight’s Spurs-Knicks game.
“Go Texas Go,” running on ESPN+ streaming through the duration of the NBA Finals, “reflects an effort to channel Hinojosa’s campaign dollars toward young male and Latino voters, audiences that the Democratic Party has struggled to connect with in recent cycles,” writes the Texas Tribune.
Read more below.
Texas Tribune: Democrat Gina Hinojosa launches first ad of Texas governor’s race, to be streamed during NBA Finals
- State Rep. Gina Hinojosa, the Democratic nominee for Texas governor, is launching her first ad buy of the general election with a digital spot to be aired during the NBA Finals between the San Antonio Spurs and the New York Knicks.
- A campaign spokesperson said Hinojosa planned to drop as much as needed to max out her ad time on all ESPN+ NBA Finals streaming content for the duration of the series.
- Hinojosa’s ad buy is the first by either gubernatorial candidate since they secured their respective party nominations on March 3.
- Hinojosa’s campaign refrain, echoed in the ad, accuses Abbott of selling out Texans to the megadonors who’ve helped fill his campaign coffers, leading Texans to pay what she dubs the “Abbott corruption tax,” in the form of higher everyday costs and underfunded public schools. The ad depicts the governor as a basketball-playing string puppet, controlled by men in suits, who force him to commit “turnover after turnover of our money to his donors.”
- “It’s a good time to be Team Texas, but Greg Abbott is not playing for us,” Hinojosa says in narrating the spot. “He’s coached by the corporations and billionaires that pay him off. So even when our team is winning, hardworking families across this state are losing.”
- “I’m running for governor to defend our kids, drive down our energy bills and bench the billionaires who’ve been running up the score on Texas families,” Hinojosa says in the ad.
- The NBA Finals ad buy reflects an effort to channel Hinojosa’s more limited campaign dollars toward young male and Latino voters, audiences that the Democratic Party has struggled to connect with in recent cycles. ESPN has been the most-watched cable network by young men for decades, the Austin Democrat’s campaign said, while the ESPN+ streaming platform in particular is “one of the best ways to reach the male and Latino voters who’ll decide this race — the hardest audiences to find on traditional channels.”
Houston Chronicle: Democrat Gina Hinojosa targets Greg Abbott with attack ad during NBA Finals
- State Rep. Gina Hinojosa, the Austin Democrat running against Gov. Greg Abbott, is set to launch her first general election ad during the NBA Finals as she looks to get on the radar of thousands of San Antonio Spurs fans and potential voters.
- Hinojosa’s campaign says it is spending five figures to run the 30-second ad on all ESPN+ streaming content during the full series between the Spurs and New York Knicks, which kicks off Wednesday night.
- Hinojosa’s campaign sees the ad buy as an opportunity to reach voters in South Texas, who will be crucial in November. Her campaign says it aims to reach 100,000 registered young, male voters with the ad, which sticks to Hinojosa’s campaign theme of accusing Abbott of being beholden to his donors.
- Abbott’s campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the ad, which was first reported by the Texas Tribune.
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