The prominent conservative group Club for Growth is throwing its weight behind a primary challenge to veteran Rep. Kay Granger of Texas — a move that is likely to anger Republican leaders who’ve rushed to her aid.

The anti-tax organization is expected this week to launch a seven-figure advertising offensive targeting Granger, a 12-term congresswoman who serves as the ranking Republican on the influential Appropriations committee. The Club for Growth, which has long warred with senior Republicans, is preparing a TV, digital and mail assault going after the congresswoman’s record on spending issues ahead of the March 3 contest.


“We anticipate some people not liking what we’re doing but we think it’s the right thing to do,” said former GOP Rep. David McIntosh, the Club's president.

The Club is endorsing technology executive Chris Putnam, who has mounted a well-funded challenge to Granger. Putnam has raised $456,000 through the end of September, including a $250,000 loan from himself. But top Republicans — including President Donald Trump — have come out in force for the incumbent.

“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!” Trump tweeted last month.

The 77-year-old Granger, who was first elected in 1996, is also getting backing from the Congressional Leadership Fund, a super PAC closely aligned with House GOP leadership. The super PAC last week released a month-old poll showing Granger leading Putnam by a comfortable margin.


The Fort Worth-area congresswoman has also received endorsements from anti-abortion group Susan B. Anthony List and Winning for Women, an organization devoted to electing Republican women. Granger is one of only 11 House Republican women seeking reelection this year.

A Club for Growth digital advertisement set to begin airing Friday derides Granger for having a “spending problem” and says she “backed wasteful spending on everything from a lobster institute in Maine to billions for the World Bank.”

McIntosh said his organization also planned to highlight Granger’s work in securing federal funding for Panther Island, a $1 billion-plus flood prevention project on the Trinity River in Fort Worth. The initiative has drawn extensive scrutiny — partly because the congresswoman’s son, J.D. Granger, was for a time put in charge.

“She’s out of sync with a very conservative Republican district,” McIntosh said. “It’s the cumulative record and the fact that she’s the head of the committee that’s been responsible for all the spending.”


Putnam, a former Colleyville city councilman, is also stressing the spending theme, airing TV ads declaring that Granger has “voted for big government bailouts, trillions in taxpayer debt, millions for Planned Parenthood.”

The Club has a long history of trying to unseat Republican members of Congress. Yet it has been less aggressive about doing so in recent years: The last time the organization went after an incumbent House Republican was 2016, when it waged an unsuccessful effort to defeat Rep. John Shimkus of Illinois.

But McIntosh said he felt comfortable targeting Granger partly because of the conservative nature of her district. Trump received 62 percent of the general-election vote in the district in 2016, meaning that any Democratic candidate for the seat would have a hard time winning it.

By going after Granger, however, the typically-pro Trump organization is parting ways with the White House. After spending millions of dollars to defeat Trump in the 2016 primary, the Club for Growth has recently refashioned itself as an ally of the president. Last fall, it aired commercials targeting freshman Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah), an occasional Trump critic.