The top super PAC aligned with President Trump announced Thursday that it will shell out another $1 million in advertising to support Rep. Pete Sessions, R-Texas, in his race against former NFL linebacker and Obama administration staffer Colin Allred.
“We are committed to ensuring that Rep. Pete Sessions — chairman of the important House Committee on Rules, a steadfast defender of our national security interests, and a loyal supporter of the president— achieves victory in November,” Erin Montgomery, communications director for America First Action, said in a statement Thursday.
America First Action announced last month that it was going to spend $1.5 million in support of Sessions. Thursday’s announcement will bring the America First Action’s spending total to $2.5 million in Texas’s 32nd Congressional District.
Backing Sessions is the latest in a string of plays America First Action is taking to help bolster Republican incumbents and candidates in key battleground elections that the group feels could help Republicans maintain control of Congress.
The Trump-aligned super PAC announced in late August that it plans to invest $10 million in 10 House races in Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, North Carolina, New York, Pennsylvania, Texas, and West Virginia. The PAC’s affiliated nonprofit group, America First Policies, will spend $2.5 million supporting Republican candidates running for Senate in Missouri and North Dakota.
America First plans to use a variety of tactics to reach voters, including direct mail and radio, television, and digital advertisement campaigns.
Sessions, the chairman of the House Rules Committee, faces a tough race against Allred, a Dallas native, child of a single mother, Texas high school and college football player, former NFL linebacker, and civil rights attorney. FiveThiryEight and the University of Virginia’s Center for Politics have the district leaning likely Republican, but other polling houses, like RealClearPolitics, label the race a toss-up.
Dallas county decidedly went for former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in 2016. Clinton took nearly 61 percent of the vote there, compared to President Trump’s 34.6 percent.
Trump endorsed Sessions last week.
“Congressman Pete Sessions of Texas is doing a great job. He is a fighter who will be tough on Crime and the Border, fight hard for our Second Amendment and loves our Military and our Vets. He has my full and complete Endorsement,” Trump tweeted last week.
The district has elected Sessions every cycle since 2002. Sessions hasn’t faced a serious challenger since 2004, and faced no Democratic challenger in 2016.
Allred is receiving a great deal of support from Democratic party leadership and affilated PACs. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and her leadership PAC have given Allred about $14,000. He is also poised to receive an additional $2.2 million from the House Majority PAC.
The Democrat is trying to box Sessions in as a pro-Trump warrior that will do anything the president asks of him. Allred recently targeted Sessions for his vote in favor of the 2017 GOP tax bill, and said he was voting for a tax break for the wealthiest Americans at the expense of lower- and middle-class income earners.
Sessions is doing his best to combat the attacks, but polls show he holds a slim 2 point advantage over Allred.
Other than the Trump endorsement, one thing Sessions has going for him is the amount of support he is getting from the Republican establishment in Washington. House Speaker Paul Ryan campaigned for Sessions in Dallas last week. Vice President Mike Pence and Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani are also expected to make visits to the district in support of Sessions.
