Gina Ortiz Jones

The National Republican Congressional Committee began airing transphobic ads against Gina Ortiz Jones, who is running for a vacant seat in a district that runs from El Paso to San Antonio. Jones is lesbian. She’s also a veteran.

The ad says Jones wants to close military bases, risking security and jobs. And what does the ad accuse her of saving all this money for? She wants the military to pay for gender reassignment surgery.

According to newly released studies done by Human Rights Campaign, 88 percent of likely Texas voters support transgender people having equal access to medical care as every other Texan and 75 percent believe transgender people should be able to live freely and openly.

The controversial ad may backfire because only 11 percent of likely Texas voters view a candidate who opposes LGBTQ equality more favorably while 43 percent would view that candidate less favorably.

And 53 percent of likely Texas voters oppose banning transgender people from serving in the US armed forces.

So what’s the point of running these ads? HRC suggests desperation.

“The NRCC’s transphobic attacks are desperate, cheap, and beneath even them. Their closing argument in Texas appears to be not just attacking LGBTQ people but our nation’s veterans and military,” HRC Texas State Director Rebecca Marques said in a written statement. “Their closing argument in Texas appears to be not just attacking LGBTQ people but our nation’s veterans and military.”

This is Jones second run for this congressional seat. Last time she was running against a moderate Republican incumbent in a swing district and she lost by just a few hundred votes. But she never stopped campaigning and Will Hurd, the incumbent, isn’t running this year. Her opponent this time isn’t the moderate Hurd is. He has little name recognition compared to Jones. His race wasn’t decided until weeks after the runoff election and has only been able to campaign during the pandemic.

Jones is the only LGBT congressional candidate running in Texas and would be Texas’ first out member of Congress.

Click here to see the ad as it was posted on Twitter.

— David Taffet