“A breast cancer survivor, mother and advocate for working families, Sima Ladjevardian is the embodiment of the American dream. Fleeing upheaval in Iran, she found a home in Houston and has spent years bringing Texans together and building stronger communities. While Congressman Crenshaw turned his back on his community and broke the central promises of his campaign as soon as he got to Washington, Sima is the leader Houston needs in the 2nd District.” – DCCC Chairwoman Cheri Bustos
To: Interested Parties
From: Avery Jaffe, DCCC Regional Press Secretary
Date: March 9, 2020
Subject: UPDATE: 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.
Crenshaw is facing Sima Ladjevardian, a well-respected Houstonian who is the embodiment of the American dream. Fleeing political upheaval in Iran, Sima arrived in the United States, spent years bringing Texans together through her interfaith community work and on top of it all beat breast cancer.
A unifying leader whose work has been recognized by the University of Houston, Sima will bring Houstonians together to tackle her community’s greatest challengers: lowering prescription drug costs and taking on Washington special interests, respecting women’s choices and protecting future generations from flooding and the impacts of a changing climate.
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]
“Ladjevardian, who is Iranian-American, left the country during the Iranian Revolution in the late 1970s and says she is running because she wants everyone to have a shot at the American Dream like she did once she got to the United States. A cancer survivor, she’s emphasizing her firsthand experience with the health care system, saying she supports “keeping private insurance and choice and having Medicare cover the rest” but not Medicare for All.” [Texas Tribune, 12/19/19]
“A late entrant in the Democratic primary for his seat, Houston lawyer Sima Ladjevardian, had an impressive debut with $408,000 raised in her first three weeks.” [Texas Tribune, 2/3/20]
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. A strong candidate like Sima will be able to turn out the changing electorate and continue to build on the trends established over the last two election cycles.
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