Did Abbott force the University of Texas to Censor The Lincoln Project Ad Before the Longhorns Game?

During Trump’s presidency, Republican activists and strategists established The Lincoln Project. It aims to recover traditional republican values and turn back the GOP to where it was originally supposed to stand, as Abraham Lincoln did, and away from all the far-right anti-human rights policies of the Trump administration. It endorsed Joe Biden in the 2020 presidential race.

According to the group, they created a national television ad attacking Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s handling of the coronavirus epidemic and was set to broadcast during the Saturday’s University of Texas vs. Rice University football game. However, it was withdrawn just minutes before the game started. Here is the ad that was censored from the match: 

According to a news release from the Lincoln Project on Sunday, the commercial was set to air on the Longhorn Network during the game between Texas and Rice University. The commercial cost $25,000 and was approved by ESPN’s legal department, according to the corporation. They were told 10 minutes before kickoff that the ad would not run due to a “university-made decision.”

The campaign launched by The Lincoln Project is called “Abbott’s Wall”, and it says that Texas has experienced more than 3.8 million cumulative coronavirus infections and more than 60,000 deaths due to COVID-19.

The amount of COVID-19 fatalities in Texas, according to the ad, would fill a cemetery stretching from Austin to San Antonio, necessitating coffins made of “enough lumber to create an 85-mile-long wall.” Abbott’s wall has been paid for with more than 60,475 Texan lives, according to the silent ad.

It is important to remember that Greg Abbott, a UT alumnus, appoints the members of the UT System Board of Regents, who then oversee UT-Austin and appoint the president of the university.

Apparently, the President of the University of Texas, Jay Hartzell, didn’t know about the decision to pull the ad before the game. UT’s provost told the faculty council that there is a longstanding policy of not selling political ads for games, so the decision of pulling out the ad was made according to that policy.