Texas Political Update 10/4/2021

Posted October 4, 2021

The Texas Legislature has convened a third special session last month, called by Gov. Greg Abbott. The special session designated “call” includes: redistricting, appropriations for federal pandemic relief funding, protecting girls’ sports, and banning vaccine mandates by local governments. On September 22nd, he added two more items: a) legislation providing additional property-tax relief for Texans, and b) legislation proposing a constitutional amendment to further protect the safety of the community, law enforcement, and victims, from accused criminals who may be released on bail. Abbott has faced pressure from his right to further emphasize the need for property tax relief. Then last week, Gov. Abbott added another item… the big elections bill passed in May actually reduced penalties for illegal voting, and Abbott wants the legislature to reverse the policy.

Redistricting
Several proposed political maps have been released over the past two weeks… the Texas Senate map prompted a former senator (Pete Flores, R-Pleasanton) to announce for the newly-drawn SD 24. Within hours, Flores got the endorsement of Sen. Dawn Buckingham (R-Lakeway) who is vacating the seat to run for land commissioner, and then Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick. Then on Monday, State Rep. Phil King (R-Weatherford) announced he is running for the newly redrawn Senate District 10, which has been primed for a GOP pickup under the proposed map. SD-10 is currently held by Democratic Sen. Beverly Powell of Burleson, who flipped the seat in 2018. Under the proposed new map, SD 10 would reach beyond Tarrant County into more conservative Parker and Johnson counties. The district would go from one that elected President Joe Biden by 8 points to one he would have lost by 15. King is a former police officer and has served in the House since 1999. The U.S. Congressional map was released last Monday, and the proposed Texas House of Representatives redistricting map was unveiled on Thursday. Redistricting hearings continue at the Texas Capitol this week.

House Retirements
At least 13 House Members have announced they will not seek re-election… either retiring or running for something another office: – State Rep. Eddie Lucio III (D-Brownsville) announced late last week he will not seek re-election. Lucio has been in the House since 2007.
– State Rep. Jim Murphy (R-Houston) announced he will not seek another term to the Texas House. Murphy, who represented House District 133 from 2007-09 and again since 2011, chairs the House GOP Caucus and the House Higher Education Committee.
– State Rep. Chris Paddie, a Marshall Republican who chairs the powerful House State Affairs Committee, said he will not seek another term in the lower chamber. The news comes less than a month after Paddie, who has represented House District 9 since 2013, announced he would run for reelection.
– State Rep. Celia Israel (D-Austin) announced she will not seek reelection and will instead explore a run for Austin mayor next year. Israel has represented House District 50 since 2014. The Austin-based district is safely Democratic, though its boundaries are likely to change before the 2022 election due to the redistricting process that is underway in the Legislature.
– State Rep. Scott Sanford, a Republican from McKinney, announced he is not running for re-election, citing his family, especially his grandchildren. Sanford represented the 70th District in the House since 2013. The 57-year-old also serves as a pastor at Cottonwood Creek Church in Allen.
– State Rep. Ben Leman (R-Anderson) announced his retirement from HD 13, and State Rep. John Turner (D-Dallas) will retire from HD 114. Both were first elected in 2018.
– Reps. Tan Parker (R-Flower Mound) and Phil King (R-Weatherford) are running for Senate seats: SD 12 and SD 10 respectively. And Rep. Michelle Beckley (D-Carrollton) is running for a seat in the U.S. Congress.
– And Attorney General Ken Paxton has another Republican primary challenger: state Rep. Matt Krause. The Fort Worth lawmaker and founding member of the House Freedom Caucus says he is running as the “faithful conservative fighter,” hoping to bring a similar conservative ideology to the position that Paxton is known for — but without the legal troubles that have dogged him for most of his time in office. Krause is the third serious primary opponent to announce against Paxton. The field already includes Land Commissioner George P. Bush and Eva Guzman, the former justice on the Texas Supreme Court.

Special Election Run-off for HD 10
Former Trump administration official Brian Harrison defeated fellow Republican John Wray last Tuesday in the hard-fought special election runoff for Wray’s old seat in the Texas House — HD 10 just south of Dallas in Ellis and Henderson Counties. Harrison defeated Wray by 10 percentage points, according to unofficial results. Wray held the seat for three terms before passing on a re-election bid last year. Wray’s successor, Waxahachie Republican Jake Ellzey, ascended to US Congress in July, prompting the contest to fill the state House seat.

Special Election in HD 118
Republican John Lujan and Democrat Frank Ramirez are advancing to a special election runoff to fill the seat of former state Rep. Leo Pacheco (D-San Antonio) a seat the GOP is eager to flip as it looks to gain new ground in South Texas. Lujan received 42% of the vote, while Ramirez got 20%, according to unofficial returns. Democrat Desi Martinez, a lawyer, was in third with 18%, followed by Democrat Katie Farias, a local school board member, at 12%. The other Republican on the ballot — Adam Salyer, the 2020 nominee for the seat — finished last at 9%. The special election was triggered by Pacheco’s resignation last month. The district, anchored in the South Side of San Antonio, is Democratic-friendly, though Republicans believe they have a shot at capturing it as they seek to capitalize on President Joe Biden’s underperformance across South Texas last year.

Dowd, Collier to Challenge Lt. Gov. Patrick
Matthew Dowd, the chief strategist for George W. Bush’s presidential reelection campaign who later split with the former president publicly, is running for lieutenant governor as a Democrat. Dowd also has worked for Bob Bullock, who in 1994 was the last Democrat elected as Texas lieutenant governor, and faces an uphill battle to unseat Republican Dan Patrick, the state’s second-highest-ranking official who has steered Texas politics into the far-right fringes of the GOP. In an interview with The Texas Tribune, Dowd said he started seriously considering running for office after the Jan. 6th attack on the U.S. Capitol by supporters of President Donald Trump who were trying to stop the certification of last year’s presidential election. But it wasn’t until after the state’s legislative session that Dowd really focused on Patrick as his target. Dowd said he’s running as a “Bob Bullock, Ann Richards Democrat,” a throwback to the last two Democrats elected as lieutenant governor and governor of the state in the 1990s.

And finally, making his third bid for statewide office, Mike Collier said today he’s also running for Lt. Governor, jumping into the Democratic primary. In 2018, the Houston-area accountant lost by fewer than 5 percentage points to incumbent Lt. Gov. Patrick.

Shannon Meroney

Shannon Meroney brings ten years experience as a multi-state lobbyist based primarily at the Texas Capitol and ten years of courtroom legal expertise to her dynamic government affairs consulting practice. Prior to creating Meroney Public Affairs LLC, Shannon spent six years as a Senior Government Relations Manager for Aetna, a Fortune 100 health insurance corporation with multi-state responsibility. Previous to that, she was a Partner at the Texas law firm Thompson, Coe, Cousins & Irons representing multiple corporate clients and large trade associations at the Capitol, in the courtroom and providing legal drafting and analysis expertise.