Former President Barack Obama released his “first wave” of 2020 endorsements, which included 27 Texas House and U.S. House incumbents, challengers and open-seat candidates:

  • House incumbents Erin Zwiener (HD45), James Talarico (HD52), Jessica González (HD104), Terry Meza (HD105), Rhetta Bowers (HD113), Gina Calanni (HD132) and Jon Rosenthal (HD135)
  • House challengers Keke Williams (HD54), Angela Brewer (HD64), Sharon Hirsch (HD66), Elizabeth Beck (HD97), Joanna Cattanach (HD108), Brandy Chambers (HD112), Celina Montoya (HD121), Natali Hurtado (HD126) and Ann Johnson (HD134); and
  • House open-seat candidates Jeff Whitfield (HD92), Joe Drago (HD96) and Akilah Bacy (HD138)
  • Congressional incumbents Lizzie Fletcher (CD7) and Colin Allred (CD32)
  • Congressional challengers Sima Ladjevardian (CD2), Adrienne Bell (CD14) and Wendy Davis (CD21); and
  • Congressional open-seat candidates Sri Preston Kulkarni (CD22), Gina Ortiz Jones (CD23) and Candace Valenzuela (CD24)

Not included was U.S. Senate challenger M.J. Hegar (D) as well as some incumbents in competitive seats, but calling this group the “first wave” of endorsements implies more waves are forthcoming.

HD47 (Lean Democratic): Jennifer Fleck has filed suit in a district court in Austin contesting her 9-point Republican runoff loss to Justin Berry. The lawsuit claims the election was “so riddled with error and flaws that the outcome of the election does not properly reflect the votes cast.” On Facebook, Fleck said she forwarded the complaint to Atty. Gen. Ken Paxton (R) seeking an investigation of the Travis Co. Clerk’s office. “Our votes are not being counted,” she said, adding that she will not vote again until there is “a valiant attempt to fix our election process.”

Fleck said her “audit” of voters in Precinct 308 found that nearly three quarters of voters said they supported her. Fleck won that precinct by 15 votes, narrowly above 50%, according to the unofficial results.

©2020 Texas Election Source LLC