Macabre billboards referencing the Uvalde school shooting have appeared in Californian cities warning residents against moving to Texas.
“The Texas miracle died in Uvalde. Don’t move to Texas,” billboards in Los Angeles and San Francisco state.
A hooded figure appears alongside the grim warning, with a crossed-out “Don’t mess with Texas” slogan.
It’s not known who erected the billboards, which have stirred controversy that the deaths of 19 children and two teachers at Robb Elementary School in May was being used for political purposes.
“This is an opportunistic use of a tragedy,” Travis County Republican Party chair Matt Mackowiak told Fox7.
SFGate.com reports that the billboards have been leased to advertisers by FoxPoint Media, but no group or party has claimed ownership of them.
“The Texas miracle” was a phrase coined by former governor Rick Perry in 2011 to describe the booming economy and high employment rates.
Don’t Mess with Texas was a slogan aimed at reducing littering on state roads, and has since been adopted as a de facto state motto to encapsulate the Lone Star state’s swagger.
Census data showed 885,000 US residents moved to Texas between 2010 and 2019, with a third of them coming from California.
Many were attracted by low taxes, job prospects and affordable housing. Joe Rogan and Elon Musk were among the high-profile names to relocate to Texas.
The exodus has also seen companies such as Oracle, Tesla and Charles Schwab Corp shift their corporate headquarters to the Lone Star state.
The states leaders have engaged in a war of words over the apparent flight of residents.
California Governor Gavin Newsom last month ran an ad campaign trolling Greg Abbott over Texas’s lack of gun control and strict abortion laws post the overturning of Roe v Wade.
“If Texas can ban abortion and endanger lives, California can ban deadly weapons of war and save lives,” the ad stated.
“If Governor Abbott truly wants to protect the right to life, we urge him to follow California’s lead.”
