When you’re worth north of $50 billion, a little setback like losing a billion on a short-lived vanity campaign that went nowhere is just a minor speed bump. Now Michael Bloomberg is trying to do to Texas what he did to Virginia.

Everytown is calling its $8 million effort here “Gun Sense Majority: Texas,” describing it as one of its largest state investments yet. It includes TV and digital ads, as well as direct mail and a field program drawn from its massive grassroots arms, Moms Demand Action and Students Demand Action. They will be pushing for policies that continue to register broad support in polling, starting with universal background checks.

Everytown is not the only national gun control group zeroing in on Texas this cycle. Brady PAC is set to spend over $500,000, a sum that its executive director said is growing from an initially “modest investment” in the fight for the state House majority. Democrats are nine seats down in that chamber.

“It just kind of snowballed as we lifted up the hood and saw all the opportunities that existed,” the executive director, Brian Lemek, said.

– Patrick Svitek in How gun control advocates plan to make Texas a top political priority in 2020