According to Firearm Chronicles
The Brady Bunch feels pretty emboldened these days. Sure, there’s a plague sweeping the country, but they managed to flip Virginia last year and turn it into an anti-gun state. That’s a big win for the gun control group, a group not known for scoring big wins in the grand scheme of things.
Now, though, it seems they want to focus on a different state this time around.
Their target? Texas.
As the coronavirus outbreak ravages fundraising efforts bypoliticalcampaigns across Texas, the political affiliate of one of the country’s oldest gun violence prevention groups is bringing reinforcements to the state, where it sees Democrats’ efforts to flip the state Houses as among the most important races in the nation.
BradyPAC is the latest gun safety group to turn its attention to Texas, planning to spend more than half a million on elections there — more than it’s spending anywhere in the nation by far — as the state remains the top target in 2020 for groups pushing for new gun laws. “If you can get Texas passing strong gun laws, I think that sends a really strong message to the rest of the country,” said Brian Lemek, executive director of the political action committee affiliated with Brady, a nonprofit formed in 1974 that advocates for assault weapons bans, red flag laws and stricter gun storage requirements, among other things.
Texas gun rights groups are also stepping up fundraising, warning supporters that they need to help defend 20 seats in the Texas House this fall.
BradyPAC’s spending plans — the full extent of which were shared exclusively with Hearst Newspapers — come as other activists, including the Everytown for Gun Safetygroup backed by former New York Mayor Mike Bloomberg, have said they plan to spend millions in Texas on an “unprecedented financial and grassroots effort” to flip the Texas House, defend vulnerable freshmen Democrats in Congress and help Democrats take congressional seats in the suburbs.