Democrats' hopes of flipping Texas again fall short as Republicans dominate the state's 2020 elections

                    By Emma Platoff

                    November 4, 2020

      Some thought it might happen as early as 2014 — and then 2016, and, of course, in 2018.

      When all those elections proved disappointing, Texas Democrats said 2020 would be the year, given record voter turnout, a once-in-a-century pandemic that grew out of control under Republican leadership and a highly controversial president.

      But 2020 proved another disappointment for the state’s minority party as Republicans remained dominant in Texas, appearing poised to maintain victories in all statewide offices and both chambers of the Legislature. In what has become a familiar refrain, Texas Democrats pointed to 2020’s narrow losses as symbolic victories — signs that the state will one day change in their favor.

      Though the margins in the presidential race were narrower than they have been in years, Democrats underperformed the high expectations they had set for themselves, particularly in a hotly contested battle for dominance in the Texas House. And a number of potential pickups for Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives seemed increasingly unlikely as the night wore on.

      With his reelection still uncertain, Donald Trump carried Texas on Tuesday. The last Democratic presidential candidate to carry the state was Jimmy Carter in 1976.

      Republican John Cornyn handily won reelection to his seat in the U.S. Senate, soaring past combat veteran MJ Hegar to notch a victory despite a late Democratic spending blitz on her behalf. Republicans held big leads in other statewide races for Railroad Commission, Texas Supreme Court and Court of Criminal Appeals.

      And the contest some in-state operatives had focused on as Democrats’ best hope — the battle for a majority in the Texas House — appeared to end with a narrow victory for Republicans, leaving intact the party’s advantage in the chamber.

      As has become habit, Texas Democrats described their losses on Tuesday not as disappointments but as hopeful omens for next time.

      “With every election, we're getting one step closer to that change,” said Ed Espinoza, executive director of Progress Texas.

      “Although we came up short,” Texas Democratic Party Chair Gilberto Hinojosa said of the U.S. Senate race, “I am hopeful because we are marching towards victory.”

      “The work we did will move our state forward for years to come,” Hegar said.

      Republicans, meanwhile, were not shy about celebrating their wins.

      Gov. Greg Abbott, who was not on the ballot himself but had been deeply involved in Texas House races, even knocking on doors over the last few weeks, celebrated on Twitter: “Texas DID stay Red.”

      Earlier this week, he had made a prescient, if provocative statement: “Democrats’ dreams will be crushed again.”

      Abbott’s top political strategist, Dave Carney, was blunter in an interview late Tuesday night. He said Democrats were massively underperforming expectations because “they buy their own bullshit.”

      “Here’s the best standard operating procedure for any campaign: Stop bragging, do your work and then you can gloat afterward,” Carney said, contrasting that approach with “bragging about what’s gonna happen in the future and being embarrassed.”

      “Why anybody would believe what these liars would say to them again is beyond belief,” Carney added. “How many cycles in a row” do they claim Texas will turn blue? “It’s crazy.”

      Cornyn, speaking to media after declaring victory Tuesday night, dismissed Democratic spending in Texas, saying Democrats "had more money than they knew what to do with, so they ended up investing in a long shot in places like Texas."

      Days before the election, polls showed a close race between Biden and Trump here — though neither candidate campaigned as if Texas were a battleground. Kamala Harris, Biden’s running mate, made a last-minute swing through the state late last week, but neither presidential candidate had been in Texas in months.

      The results Tuesday night showed a close presidential contest in Texas. Trump’s lead in Texas was in the mid-single-digits early Wednesday morning, according to Decision Desk HQ — smaller than his 9-point 2016 margin, and about a third of Mitt Romney’s 16-point victory here in 2012.

      Even as Biden performed well in large suburban counties that used to be reliably Republican, he failed to notch wide margins of victory in some critical Democratic strongholds, massively underperforming Hillary Clinton in the mostly Hispanic Rio Grande Valley. For example, Trump was leading in unofficial results in Zapata County — where Clinton won with 66% of the vote in 2016.

      Victoria DeFrancesco Soto, an assistant dean and politics expert at the University of Texas' Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs, pointed to two major reasons for Biden’s relative underperformance in the Valley: lower name ID compared with Clinton and limited door-to-door campaigning due to the coronavirus pandemic.

      “The Valley is old school, and you need that grassroots mobilization,” she said. “And there wasn’t grassroots work, at least on the Democratic side, because of the pandemic. And arguably the GOP did have at least a bit more grassroots work because they had a different vision of public health.”

      “That to me explains the Biden underperformance: He really wasn’t known, and then he didn’t have the time to make it up,” she added.

      Trump, meanwhile, launched a Latino outreach initiative for his 2020 bid, she noted.

      Republicans had hoped their willingness to knock on doors during the pandemic would give them an edge over Democrats, some of whom leaned on remote campaigning methods.

     As expected, lesser-known — and less controversial — Republicans did better than Trump on the statewide ballot in Texas. Republicans running for seats on the state’s two high courts, and the board that regulates oil and gas, each looked poised to win by a healthy margin. For the first time in years, Democrats had run contested primaries for most statewide races, including a crowded 12-candidate primary for the U.S. Senate race and competition for the nomination for nearly every judicial seat.

      Democrats were also falling far short of expectations in U.S. House races. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee had targeted 10 GOP-held seats this fall in Texas, though by midnight, they had no pickups to tout.

      In one race — to replace retiring Rep. Will Hurd, R-Helotes — Democratic party leaders had started the cycle brimming with confidence that the seat would flip to them, especially after Republicans had to go through a seemingly endless nomination process. But before the night was over, the campaign of the Republican nominee, Tony Gonzales, was declaring victory.

      “Not only did they underestimate me, I think they underestimated the district,” Gonzales said in an interview late Tuesday night. “District 23 is just different — it is. You have to work your tail off to win the trust of the constituents and you have to work your tail off to keep that trust. TV ads, blanketing the airwaves, isn’t enough.”

      But perhaps the most striking rebuke to Democrats’ hopes on Tuesday night was their failure to regain a majority — or even move the needle much — in the 150-member Texas House, where they needed to pick up nine seats.

        Even before the chamber’s majority party had been determined, optimistic Democrats had declared their candidacy to lead it as speaker.

      "Before the day is done, Democrats will take the Texas House,” one candidate, El Paso Democrat Joe Moody, said Tuesday morning. By early Wednesday morning, it seemed clear they would not.

         Democrats will get another chance to test their hopes in 2022, when statewide offices like governor and attorney general will appear on the ballot. It remains to be seen whether they can increase their power in the state.

      “Is Texas on the route to becoming blue, or is Texas on the road to becoming a perennial battleground? That’s a question I don’t know the answer to,” DeFrancesco Soto said. “But I do feel confident saying we are moving in the purple direction, and we may just stay stuck at purple.”

      Patrick Svitek contributed reporting.

                    "Democrats' hopes of flipping Texas again fall short as Republicans dominate the state's 2020 elections" was first published at https://www.texastribune.org/2020/11/04/texas-republicans-election-results/ by The Texas Tribune. The Texas Tribune is proud to celebrate 10 years of exceptional journalism for an exceptional state.

Coronavirus splits Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and his own party

                    By Ross Ramsey

                    September 25, 2020

      Gov. Greg Abbott’s most exasperating allies sure chose an awkward time to act up.

      In the face of a momentous election, with an array of issues that includes the pandemic, the recession, climate change, racial justice, law enforcement and the next appointment to the U.S. Supreme Court, the chairman of the Texas GOP and a gang of lawmakers and activists have instead picked a fight with Abbott, who isn’t even on the ballot, over his response to the pandemic.

      On the surface, they’re asking the courts to tell the governor that adding six more days of early voting to the calendar was outside of his powers. Abbott made the move under emergency powers he has claimed during the pandemic — the same powers he has used at various times to shut down schools, limit crowd sizes and limit how many customers businesses can serve at a time, or in some cases, to close businesses altogether.

      The timing is connected to the Nov. 3 general election; even with the arguments over emergency powers, opponents of the governor’s action would be expected to grab for a remedy before early voting starts on Oct. 13. One might say the same about other lawsuits challenging the governor’s orders — that they’re tied not to politics, but to current events. Bar owners want to open their bars, for instance, and are not in the financial condition or the mood to stay closed until after the elections just to make the current set of incumbents look good.

      What’s unusual is to see so many prominent Republican names on the top of a lawsuit against the Republican governor of Texas this close to an election.

      In a gentler time, that might be called unseemly or distracting. Speaking ill of another Republican was considered out of bounds for a while there. Those days are over. What’s happening in Texas illustrates how the pandemic, the economy and other issues have shaken political norms.

      Shelley Luther is one of six people running in a special election to replace state Sen. Pat Fallon, a Prosper Republican who gave up his statehouse perch for a shot at a congressional seat. Abbott doesn’t have a hand in the race, but his name is being invoked. Luther is the Dallas-area salon owner who was briefly jailed this year after defying Abbott’s orders closing businesses like hers that were officially deemed “nonessential.” So maybe it’s not a surprise that she campaigns as a candidate who’s independent of her party leader.

      She started the game playing the renegade card and has stuck with it. But she’s not alone out there. Some of the state’s most conservative Republicans — part of Abbott’s base of support over his decades in state government — are taking the governor to task. State Rep. Steve Toth, R-The Woodlands, has disowned Abbott, saying he can no longer follow the GOP’s leading state official.

      "What started as 15 days to flatten the curve has turned into six months of misery to the small business owners of House District 15,” Toth wrote in a letter to Abbott that he later posted on social media. He said Abbott had demonstrated an “appalling lack of consistency, leadership, and concern” for small businesses.

      That’s the kind of chippy note from one politician to another that you’d expect to read in the last few weeks before a big election. But this election has no direct bearing on either of these politicians.

      Toth is running as a Republican in a House district where Donald Trump beat Hillary Clinton by 37.2 percentage points and where Ted Cruz beat Beto O’Rourke by 29.8 percentage points. It’s safe to say he’s safe in the general election, unless he steps into an open manhole crossing the street. Abbott, elected to a second term in 2018, isn’t on the ballot this year.

      The election is near. Unless the courts change it, early voting starts in less than three weeks. Democrats and Republicans are shouting at each other, as the season demands. In a normal presidential election year, a Texas governor who isn’t on the ballot would be leading the partisan charge, helping lesser and greater figures rally their voters in the state.

      Abbott isn’t ignoring the political fights of the season. But there is an extra one this year — in his own political family.

                    "Analysis: Coronavirus splits Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and his own party" was first published at https://www.texastribune.org/2020/09/25/gov-greg-abbott-republicans-fight-coronavirus/ by The Texas Tribune. The Texas Tribune is proud to celebrate 10 years of exceptional journalism for an exceptional state.

The Texas Legislature can meet for up to 140 days. The pandemic raises a question: Should it?

                    By Ross Ramsey

                    August 5, 2020

      Clear plexiglass shields have been installed in some places in the Texas Capitol, like the big room where the House Appropriations Committee writes budgets. Lawmakers who write the state’s budget will have the same protection from their colleagues and staffers that up to now has been used mostly to shield buffet salads and deli meats.

      Sneeze screens.

      Conversations about how to legislate during a pandemic have animated lawmakers since the new coronavirus reared its head in Texas earlier this year.

      The budgets they churn out are on the must-do list. Money makes the wheels turn, keeping the government going for the next three years or so. The census is expected to be late, and that’s needed for the redrawing of the state’s political districts, another must-do item for the 87th Legislature.

      That’s why Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick said last week that he’s telling senators not to plan any vacations next year before the end of September. He’s saying there will be special sessions on redistricting and that they could take all summer. Under non-pandemic conditions, he and other state leaders would at least be pretending new political maps could be turned out during the regular session.

      There are always a few things — not as many as campaigning politicians promise — that have to be done right away. But other normal and regular functions of the Legislature — most of them, honestly — can probably wait.

      The Sunset Advisory Commission, which conducts life-and-death reviews of state agencies, spent most of its meeting on Tuesday deciding whether public testimony should be in-person or virtual, all under the working idea that the commission’s work is absolutely critical. It’s important. But there is also a “safety net bill” every session to keep alive the agencies that would be shuttered — sunsetted — without legislation. That’s just one of many ways a government can push things to later dates.

      And there’s nothing in the laws or the rules that says the Legislature has to work for 140 days; the law says that’s the maximum length of a regular session, not the minimum.

      In a normal 140-day regular session, the Legislature considers thousands of bills and passes fewer than one in four of them. According to statistics compiled by the Legislative Reference Library, lawmakers filed an average of 6,212 bills in each of the last 10 sessions and passed 1,409 — a pass rate of 22.7%.

      It doesn’t mean they must do that, just that it’s the norm.

      If you were dispatched to make the same kinds of decisions about Texas lawmakers that state and local government officials right now are making about public school children, you’d talk about the same things the folks in Austin are considering.

      Screens between lawmakers. Forests of sanitizer stands all over the Capitol. Rules about when virtual meetings are safer than in-person ones. Constant testing. Shortened schedules.

      Lawmakers could be at great risk. A quarter of them are at least 60 years old. More than half are older than 50. As social as these people are, any politician worth the title is probably qualified, if unrestrained, to be a super-spreader.

      So why not limit their exposure?

      The budget has to be done. State Comptroller Glenn Hegar estimates a $4.6 billion shortfall for the current two -year budget that runs through August 2021. Lawmakers have to fill that hole and then write a budget for the two years after that based on whatever glum revenue forecast Hegar conjures up at the start of the year.

      Redistricting has to be done. As soon as the census is complete and delivered to lawmakers, they have to draw new political maps for the Texas congressional delegation, the Texas Legislature and the State Board of Education. If they don’t, the courts will do it for them.

      Expect a dozen or so other must-dos to come out of 2020’s stew of pandemic, recession, an anxiety-ridden presidential election and rising clamor against racial injustice and police violence.

      State government is tuned to a two-year cycle. The budget lasts that long. The Legislature only meets in odd-numbered years, unless a governor calls a 30-day special session to work out an issue that just can’t wait.

      Important debates are held. Laws are passed. It’s a regularly scheduled civil fight over the rules and laws we abide by.

      Some of it can wait. And if the coronavirus is thriving in January anything like it’s thriving now, lawmakers will be faced then — like educators and parents and students are faced today — with decisions about what’s safe and what’s right.

      And they’re going to have some explaining to do if what they do for themselves is much different from what they prescribe for the rest of us.

                    "Analysis: The Texas Legislature can meet for up to 140 days. The pandemic raises a question: Should it?" was first published at https://www.texastribune.org/2020/08/05/pandemic-texas-legislature/ by The Texas Tribune. The Texas Tribune is proud to celebrate 10 years of exceptional journalism for an exceptional state.

Gov. Greg Abbott warns if spread of COVID-19 doesn’t slow, “the next step would have to be a lockdown”

                    By Alex Samuels

                    July 10, 2020

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With Texas continuing to break records for new coronavirus deaths and hospitalizations this week, Gov. Greg Abbott reiterated Friday afternoon that things will continue to get worse. And if people keep flouting his new statewide mask mandate, he said, the next step could be another economic lockdown.

“Things will get worse, and let me explain why,” he told KLBK TV in Lubbock. “The deaths that we’re seeing announced today and yesterday — which are now over 100 — those are people who likely contracted COVID-19 in late May.

“The worst is yet to come as we work our way through that massive increase in people testing positive.”

Texans will also likely see an increase in cases next week, Abbott said, and people abiding by his face mask requirement might be the only thing standing between businesses remaining open and another shutdown.

“The public needs to understand this was a very tough decision for me to make,” Abbott told KLBK of his face mask mandate. “I made clear that I made this tough decision for one reason: It was our last best effort to slow the spread of COVID-19. If we do not slow the spread of COVID-19 … the next step would have to be a lockdown.”

Abbott has pushed that message repeatedly in television interviews this week. But he emphasized Friday that another shutdown was not imminent and he pointed to steps he has taken so far to scale back reopening in an effort to curb the spread of the coronavirus, including the mask order and a requirement that bars, once again, close their doors. He has also tightened restaurant capacity limits.

Texas reported 100 more coronavirus deaths on Thursday, another record.

In three live television appearances Friday afternoon, Abbott acknowledged that his mask order — that Texans in counties with more than 20 cases wear masks in public — was neither popular nor convenient, but said it was important for everyone to join in the effort. His plea to Texans comes as nearly 80 Texas counties have opted out of the order order, while others are refusing to enforce it.

“It’s disappointing,” Abbott told CBS Tyler of government entities who defy his mandate.

“I realize that a murderer or rapist or robber is far more serious to concentrate on. However, I know this also: If we do not all join together and unite in this one cause for a short period of time of adopting the masks, it will lead to the necessity of having to close Texas back down,” he said. “That should be the last thing that any government wants.”

As of Thursday afternoon, 2,918 Texas had died of COVID-19. The state also reported nearly another 10,000 new cases of the disease.

Nearly 9,700 people were in Texas hospitals on Thursday, too, the highest number since the pandemic began.

With cases of the virus and related hospitalizations rising at alarming rates, Abbott expanded his ban on elective medical procedures Thursday to cover more than 100 counties across much of the state. On Friday afternoon, he also extended his disaster declaration for all Texas counties in response to COVID-19.

“If we can get people across the state … to wear face masks, we will be able to keep the state open,” Abbott said in an interview with KSAT. “We will be able to reduce hospitalizations. But if this is not encouraged, if people do not adopt the best practice of wearing a face covering, it will lead to an increase in this rapid spread of COVID-19.”

In a statement following Abbott’s interviews, the Texas Democratic Party said any further shutdowns would be Abbott’s fault.

“By reopening Texas prematurely, Abbott put all of us at risk for rising cases and a second shutdown,” said spokesman Abhi Rahman. “That’s exactly what has happened so far. Abbott’s mismanagement of the coronavirus crisis has made Texas one of the most dangerous states to live in, completely tanked our economy, and shown the entire world just how incompetent Trump and Abbott are.”

                    "Gov. Greg Abbott warns if spread of COVID-19 doesn’t slow, “the next step would have to be a lockdown”" was first published at https://www.texastribune.org/2020/07/10/greg-abbott-shutdown-texas-mask-order/ by The Texas Tribune. The Texas Tribune is proud to celebrate 10 years of exceptional journalism for an exceptional state.

In GOP runoffs for the Texas House, viability in November is a leading concern

                    By Patrick Svitek and Cassandra Pollock

                    July 7, 2020

                    Texas Republicans are set to soon finalize their nominees for three state House seats that will likely be competitive in November, races that have elevated debates over who is the most viable for the general election.

With the Tuesday runoffs, the GOP will select nominees to take on two Democrats who flipped seats in 2018: Reps. Vikki Goodwin of Austin and Erin Zwiener of Driftwood. Republicans will also make their pick for the seat of retiring Rep. Rick Miller, R-Sugar Land, who saw an unexpectedly close race two years ago.

Top Republicans are especially focused on the runoffs to challenge Goodwin and fill Miller’s seat as Democrats hope to flip the House for the first time in roughly two decades. In the primary, Gov. Greg Abbott endorsed a candidate to replace Miller, former Fort Bend County GOP Chair Jacey Jetton, and the governor more recently picked sides in the runoff to take on Goodwin, backing Austin police officer Justin Berry. Last week, the Republican State Leadership Committee, a national group focused on state legislative races, endorsed Jetton and Berry and announced it would help them as part of a $200,000 investment across five Texas House runoffs.

Campaign finance reports released Tuesday show that Berry and Jetton easily out-raised — and outspent — their runoff opponents over roughly the last three and a half months, with Berry ending the period with more cash on hand than his rival. Abbott's campaign pitched in $37,000 in in-kind contributions for Berry and $34,000 for Jetton.

“Our thought is we need to get candidates who have real-world experiences different than the average candidate and people who have the communication skills and the policies and the personality that can get them to reach out to win independent, swing voters in the fall,” said Dave Carney, Abbott’s chief political strategist. “It’s always the idea to get the best nominee out of the primary for these seats.”

In addition to the Republican runoffs for the Goodwin and Miller seats, Carrie Isaac and Kent “Bud” Wymore are facing off to take on Zwiener. Isaac, executive director of an Austin-based nonprofit and wife to former state Rep. Jason Isaac, R-Dripping Springs, got close to winning outright in the three-way March primary, garnering 48% of the vote to Wymore’s 41%.

While Isaac and Wymore, former chair of the Hays County Republican Party, duked it out in the primary, the runoff has been quieter, and GOP leaders and groups seem less concerned with who emerges as the nominee against Zwiener than they do in the districts held by Goodwin and Miller.

Still, the theme of viability in November has at times surfaced in the race. In a recent email to supporters, Isaac pointed to her list of endorsements from elected officials, saying “they know I’m the strongest candidate that gives us the best chance to win in November" to work on cutting property taxes and securing the border, among other things.

Like Berry and Jetton, Isaac also posted a significant fundraising advantage in her runoff Tuesday, easily out-raising and outspending Wymore and entering the final week with more in the bank.

In another Austin-area House seat, Berry and Austin attorney Jennifer Fleck are facing off for their party’s nomination to take on Goodwin. Berry advanced to the runoff after earlier results had the candidate finishing third, and thus missing the overtime round, by just one vote.

Since that March contest, the contrast between Berry and Fleck has sharpened considerably, with Berry’s campaign seizing on what Fleck has said and done during the coronavirus pandemic. In mid-March, as the virus was hitting the state, Fleck traveled to the beach for what she characterized on social media as an already-planned spring break trip with family. Then, in April and May, Fleck attended rallies in Austin, joining activists calling on Abbott to begin reopening parts of the state.

“She self-destructed and disqualified herself in the last 12 weeks,” Craig Murphy, a spokesperson for Berry’s campaign, told the Tribune. “People took one look and, without any doubt, knew she would have no chance to win in November."

Fleck, who on social media has often downplayed the danger of the virus, has aligned herself with hardline conservative groups such as Texas Right to Life and Gun Owners of America, earning support from both in her bid for the House seat. She has also picked up endorsements from two of the three other Republican candidates in the March primary: former Austin City Council member Don Zimmerman, who is now seeking a seat in the Texas Senate, and Austin lawyer Aaron Reitz.

Fleck has also brushed off Abbott’s endorsement of Berry, often invoking the hashtag #FleckTheEstablishment in posts on social media.

“Please tell me,” she wrote in a recent post on Facebook, “Why on God's green earth would this man endorse against me in a contested primary runoff that I lead and spend money to subvert the will of the people?”

Fleck’s track record has also caught the attention of Associated Republicans of Texas, a prominent GOP group supporting Berry. In a recent mail piece, the group contrasted the two candidates by casting Fleck as the candidate “focused on fringe issues” and Berry as the one with experience and electability on his side.

“While Justin Berry has focused on core conservative issues, Fleck has focused on fringe issues that will make her unelectable in November,” a line in the mailer reads. “With Democrats spending millions to make the Texas House like Nancy Pelosi’s U.S. House, we cannot risk this seat on Jennifer Fleck.”

Fleck, whose campaign did not respond to a request for comment for this story, addressed the mailer on social media in June, saying it was sent out “on behalf of my sneaky opponent.” Responding to the “fringe issues” criticism, Fleck said in a Facebook post, “If fringe issues are protecting children, families and parental rights, then YES I am fringe. I am very electable. Judge for yourself.

“You can’t risk choosing any other candidate but me,” Fleck wrote. “I am a fighter and I will be your champion! Stop wasting your money trying to beat me dolts. The People will decide.”

Meanwhile, the Republican nominating process for Miller’s seat has been a rollercoaster since the primary.

The incumbent was initially running for reelection last year and had drawn three primary challengers: Jetton, Leonard Chan and Matt Morgan. But after Miller suggested to the Houston Chronicle late last year that Jetton and Chan were running against him because they are “Asian,” Abbott rescinded his endorsement of Miller and the lawmaker decided against a reelection campaign.

Abbott endorsed Jetton in the run-up to the March primary — and Miller got behind Morgan, a Richmond insurance agent, four days later.

Despite Abbott’s involvement, Morgan almost won outright in the three-way primary, getting 49.7% of the vote to 40.7% for Jetton. The third candidate, Leonard Chan, has since endorsed Morgan.

Morgan said he sees himself as the better choice for the general election because he has stronger connections to the district. He said he has lived there “basically my entire life” and has gotten to know so many residents — “and some that are Democrats that will come out and vote for me in November.”

“I have crossover capabilities with those deep roots,” Morgan said in an interview.

Jetton said in an interview that the debate over general-election viability “hasn’t been a huge part” of the runoff but noted he has been on the front lines of the fight to keep Fort Bend County red. He said he has “been voting in Republican primaries and been part of the party for the last decade,” contrasting himself with Morgan, who Jetton said has been not as “involved in a lot of the work that’s been done to try to” hold the GOP line in the politically changing county.

“I’ve been in the trenches working on this for a long time,” Jetton said.

Morgan’s lack of a Republican primary voting history before March has drawn fire in the runoff, and a recent mailer against him said, “With so much at stake, we can’t gamble on a REPUBLICAN IN NAME ONLY.” Morgan took to Facebook to denounce the mailer last week.

Miller has remained a factor in the race, given his support for Morgan. The candidate said Miller’s controversial remarks from last year do not come up much on the campaign trail and that he does not believe they would be an issue for him in the general election.

“Should I win this runoff, I’m obviously a different person than Rick Miller,” Morgan said. “Because he supports me doesn’t necessarily mean I support everything he’s done or said.”

Noting he is “not a believer of cancel culture,” Chan said in an interview that he has spoken with Miller several times since the controversy and believes Miller understands why his words were wrong. Miller’s support for Morgan was “not a factor” in Chan’s post-primary endorsement of Morgan, Chan added.

There is also a Democratic primary runoff for Miller’s seat, between L. Sarah DeMerchant, a Sugar Land IT executive who lost to Miller by 5 percentage points in 2018, and newcomer Suleman Lalani, a Sugar Land physician. DeMerchant and Lalani finished close in the four-way March primary, getting 30% and 32% of the vote, respectively.

Democrats will also lock in their nominees next week for two other battleground state House districts. Tom Adair and Lorenzo Sanchez are competing to challenge Rep. Jeff Leach, R-Plano, while Akilah Bacy and Jenifer Rene Pool are vying for the seat of retiring Rep. Dwayne Bohac, R-Houston.

Bohac’s seat is expected to be particularly competitive in November after he won reelection in 2018 by just 47 votes. Republicans already picked their nominee for the seat, Lacey Hull, in the March primary.

                    "In GOP runoffs for the Texas House, viability in November is a leading concern" was first published at https://www.texastribune.org/2020/07/07/texas-house-runoff-elections/ by The Texas Tribune. The Texas Tribune is proud to celebrate 10 years of exceptional journalism for an exceptional state.