“In Houston, Dan Crenshaw promised Texans he’d work with Democrats to lower drug costs. In Washington, it didn’t take long for Congressman Crenshaw to turn his back on voters and dive in head-first with the Washington special interests funding his campaign. Congressman Crenshaw will have to answer for why he is standing with drug company lobbyists and special interests to keep prescription drug costs high while hardworking Houston families pay the price.” – DCCC Chairwoman Cheri Bustos
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To: Interested Parties
From: Avery Jaffe, DCCC Regional Press Secretary
Date: March 4, 2020
Subject: The Case Against Congressman Dan Crenshaw
Strip away Congressman Dan Crenshaw’s attempts to make himself a meme-worthy conservative superstar and you’re left with a narrowly-elected freshman congressman from an urban-suburban district who broke his key promise on health care and prescription drugs as soon as he arrived in Washington.
On the campaign trail, Crenshaw promised voters he’d work across the aisle to give Medicare the power to negotiate with big drug manufacturers to lower drug costs. He even put it on his website.
Today, after accepting tens of thousands of dollars in donations from the insurance and drug manufacturing industries, Crenshaw’s position has changed. He’s even scrubbed his original pledge from his website.
As a Member of Congress, Crenshaw is spending millions to raise his own profile while leaving his constituents in Texas in the dust. Despite his pledge to hold one town hall per quarter, Crenshaw now appears more interested in pursuing a high-flying lifestyle as a walking conservative meme, popping up for Fox News cable hits and hawking Crenshaw iPhone popsockets on his campaign website.
WHAT THEY’RE SAYING
HEADLINE: “These Republicans campaigned on a bold drug-pricing pledge. Since they won, they’ve gone silent” [Stat News, 5/24/19]
“Crenshaw’s office has acknowledged he changed his position,” [Texas Tribune, 12/19/19]
“As a candidate, Crenshaw backed [lowering drug prices]. In a now-removed section on his campaign “issues” page, he wrote, ‘It is time for Congress to take on out-of-control drug prices, and beat back the pharmaceutical lobby.’” [American Independent, 12/12/19]
ED BOARD: “Crenshaw’s 53 percent vote in 2018 suggests he is not invulnerable.” [Houston Chronicle, 2/21/19]
Dan Crenshaw: A D.C. Sellout Who Caved to Big Drugmakers
FLIPPING ON A KEY PROMISE, SELLING OUT TO DRUG MANUFACTURERS
In 2018, then-candidate Dan Crenshaw campaigned on a promise to lower prescription drug prices by giving Medicare the power to negotiate with pharmaceutical companies to help lower the skyrocketing costs plaguing Texas families.
Now, after taking thousands from health care special interests and after just a few months in office, “Crenshaw has shifted his position” STAT News reported. The shift was so egregious that Crenshaw still had his previous position listed on his campaign website at the time of his flip. It’s since been scrubbed.
DIVING HEAD=FIRST INTO THE WASHINGTON SWAMP
Crenshaw’s campaign finance reports are a doozy. Records show that Crenshaw changed his position on lowering prescription drug costs after taking thousands from health care special interests and taking campaign cash from his Washington Republican bosses.
In total, Congressman Crenshaw has taken more than $320,000 from corporate PACs since arriving in Washington, D.C.
Congressman Crenshaw has left Houstonians behind while embracing the Washington special interests.
SPENDING CAMPAIGN CASH LIKE CRAZY
Don’t be fooled by Congressman Crenshaw’s fundraising reports – Crenshaw may be in his first term in Congress, but he’s spending campaign cash like there’s no tomorrow. In the 2020 election cycle, Crenshaw has already spent nearly $3 million. In the first six weeks of 2020 alone, Crenshaw spent almost 60 percent of what he raised.
In Q4 2019, Crenshaw spent a staggering $1 million dollars – a 65.7 percent burn rate – without a single dime of it going into paid communications. Instead, he spent hundreds on cookbooks, and thousands on country club membership dues.
PATH TO VICTORY
When Republican Texas House Speaker Dennis Bonnen admitted President Trump was killing the Republican Party in “urban-suburban districts” across the Lone Star State, he was talking about places like Texas’ 2nd Congressional District. Freshman Congressman Dan Crenshaw vastly underperformed in his 2018 campaign, scraping by with an historically low vote share for a Republican in this quickly-changing district.
Instead of recognizing the peril he faces, one year into his new job, Congressman Crenshaw has already gone Washington – caving to drug manufacturing lobbyists and flat-out breaking a key 2018 campaign promise to lower prescription drug costs.
The district is highly educated (41.3% with a college degree) and fits into the kind of densely populated suburbs where Republicans have struggled in the last two election cycles. On top of that, Texas’s Second District includes large communities of minority voters, with African Americans (11.6%), Hispanics/Latinos (21.0%), and AAPIs (6.7%), making up a combined 39% of the district’s eligible voters.
The district is trending Democratic and growing, with a 21.0% increase in citizen voting age population from 2010 to 2018. It’s no wonder U.S. Senate Candidate Beto O’Rourke narrowly lost this district in 2018, earning 49.4% of the two-way vote.
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