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WASHINGTON — Hours after an influential conservative group backed Fort Worth U.S. Rep. Kay Granger’s GOP primary challenger, the longtime incumbent on Thursday rolled out a high-profile endorsement of her own.
The dueling announcements from the Club for Growth — which is supporting Chris Putnam, Granger’s opponent — and National Right to Life, which is backing Granger, reflect a growing escalation in a GOP-held 12th Congressional District that’s typically lacking in buzz.
Granger, the top Republican on the powerful House Appropriations Committee, is the only GOP incumbent in North Texas who’s facing a serious challenge in the March primary.
The 12-term lawmaker has been bracing for the competition, stockpiling support from key conservative groups and leaders — none more significant than President Donald Trump, the Republican who last month gave Granger his “complete and total” endorsement.
So Granger was ready when the anti-tax Club for Growth threw its support behind Putnam, a well-funded former Colleyville city councilman, and criticized her record along the way.
“Granger … has recklessly voted for out-of-control deficit-spending, backroom bloated budget deals, and debt limit increases,” former GOP Rep. David McIntosh, the group’s president, said in a news release. “Voters deserve a fiscal conservative with a voting record to match.”
The Club for Growth confirmed that it plans to bolster its endorsement by spending a seven-figure sum on an advertising campaign against Granger — news first reported by Politico.
A Granger campaign spokesman later Thursday criticized Putnam’s council record. But her campaign was first quick to counterpunch by sharing an endorsement letter that National Right to Life, an anti-abortion group, sent to Granger.
“All voters in the 12th congressional district who are concerned with the right to life and with the protection of the most vulnerable members of the human family should vote to return you to the U.S. House,” the group’s leaders wrote to Granger.
The intra-party back-and-forth isn’t likely to abate in the coming weeks, marking a sharp departure from past campaign cycles, when Granger typically didn’t face a credible challenger in either the Republican primary or the November general election.
Putnam, a technology executive, has made clear that he plans to attack Granger from the right — accusing her of not providing sufficient support to Trump, of backing wasteful spending in D.C., and of being a squish on hot-button topics like abortion.
“Sounds like Nancy Pelosi, right?” he wrote in a recent email to supporters, referring to the Democratic House speaker. “Nope — it’s Texas’ own Kay Granger! With her liberal voting record, she has become a stranger to us in the 12th district.”
Putnam also could have the financial means to amplify his message.
He raised more than $455,000 through September, the most recent time period available. That haul included a $250,000 loan from himself, but also donations from noted conservatives like retiring state Rep. Jonathan Stickland and former state Sen. Don Huffines.
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The Club for Growth, which has not taken on an incumbent House Republican since 2016, will only further boost the challenger’s outreach.
Its ad campaign accuses Granger of having a “spending problem,” turning her posting on House Appropriations against her. It also highlights her efforts to secure funding for Panther Island, a contentious Fort Worth flood prevention project that her son used to manage.
“We anticipate some people not liking what we’re doing, but we think it’s the right thing to do,” McIntosh, the group’s president, told Politico, though he added in an email to The Dallas Morning News that he’s “not expecting significant blowback” from the decision.
Donald J. Trump✔@realDonaldTrump
Congresswoman Kay @GrangerCampaign has worked hard for Texas and been a strong supporter of our #MAGA Agenda. She’s strong on #2A and Securing our Border and is 100% pro-life. Kay has my Complete and Total Endorsement!
Granger, 77, didn’t let the broadside go unanswered.
Her campaign spokesman, Keats Norfleet, on Thursday afternoon responded by touting the Trump endorsement. He also called Club for Growth’s backing of Putnam “ironic,” accusing the challenger of voting to “raise property taxes and grow the budget” when he served on Colleyville’s council.
Putnam campaign spokeswoman Karin Dyer, in turn, said late Thursday that Putnam is a “well-known conservative reformer that cut taxes, reduced debt and even passed term limits on himself.”
“Granger is trying to hide her liberal record by distracting voters,” she said, accusing the incumbent of having “consistently attacked the president, ignored border security, raised taxes and abandoned the unborn.”
Granger, meanwhile, had already raised more than $1 million through September, according to campaign finance records. She’s also getting support from the Congressional Leadership Fund, a deep-pocketed super political action committee with ties to House GOP leadership.
The only Republican woman in the House from Texas also has sought to shore up some potential vulnerabilities — including with the commander in chief.
She endorsed Jeb Bush in the 2016 primaries and called on Trump to step down as the nominee when audio leaked of him bragging about making unwanted sexual advances. But Granger has patched things up with the president, even joining him in October at a World Series game.
Trump then last month offered Granger his support.
The congresswoman “has worked hard for Texas and been a strong supporter of our #MAGA Agenda,” Trump wrote then on Twitter, referring to his “Make America Great Again” slogan. “She’s strong on #2A and Securing our Border and is 100% pro-life.”
Granger welcomed his support.
“I am truly honored by President Trump’s endorsement of our campaign and I’m proud to stand with him in the fight to Make America Great Again,” she said last month, adding that there’s “too much at stake to send an unproven, inexperienced representative” to Washington.
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The lawmaker has also, no doubt, played a role in the massive spending bills that have come out of Congress. But she’s pitched her role as “delivering results” for her district and helping Trump “build the wall, secure our border and rebuild the nation’s military.”
Granger has endured criticism from some conservatives for calling herself a “pro-choice Republican” in a 2007 TV interview.
But her voting record in more recent years has not reflected that description. The Susan B. Anthony List Candidate Fund, another anti-abortion group, this month endorsed her as a “strong advocate for unborn children and the pro-life movement.”
“Rep. Granger has demonstrated strength and diligence in protecting President Trump’s pro-life victories from abortion extremists led by Speaker Pelosi, who have unsuccessfully tried to undermine them,” Marjorie Dannenfelser, the group’s president, said in a news release.
In touting her endorsement Thursday from National Right to Life, Granger vowed to “defend the unborn against those who do not value life or the values we hold dear in the 12th district.”