Fact-Checking Pete Gallego’s Race to Retake Congressional Seat

Our weekly check-in with the Texas Truth-O-Meter.

By Alain StephensOctober 19, 2016 10:20 am,

Nancy Pelosi, the Democratic House minority leader, wants Pete Gallego of Alpine back in the U.S. House, according to a TV ad from a Republican group backing the incumbent in the seat representing the 23rd Congressional District sprawling south and west from San Antonio.

Why, the ad’s narrator says? He says: “Because Gallego is the insider’s insider. Career politician. Went and lobbied after you fired him from Congress.”

And: 

“We’re going to build a wall,” Donald Trump says at the start of a TV ad from Democratic congressional nominee Pete Gallego of Alpine brought to our attention by Zach Hunter of the National Republican Congressional Committee.

The commercial, launched as Gallego strives to retake the U.S. House seat he lost to Republican Will Hurd of Helotes in 2014, highlights the Republican presidential nominee’s repeated call for a border-length wall with Mexico.

Midway, though, the focus  shifts to Hurd who, a female narrator intones, “shares the same bad ideas” as Trump. Next, you see Hurd, talking on MSNBC’s Morning Joe, saying: “A wall absolutely makes sense.” Text under the snippet says: “Rep. Hurd Talks Trump’s Idea to Build A Wall.”

Gardner Selby of the PolitiFact Texas fact-checking team is here to tell us about the validity of these claims surrounding Gallego’s congressional race.

Hear how these claims scored in the player above.