Ending months of speculation, former U.S. Rep. Beto O’Rourke (D-El Paso) announced he would seek the Democratic nomination to challenge President Trump (R). He is the second prominent Texan in the Democratic race, joining former San Antonio Mayor and U.S. Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julián Castro.
The latter released a list of endorsements from around 30 Texans, mostly Hispanic/Latino, including three members of Congress: U.S. Reps. Colin Allred (D-Dallas), Joaquin Castro (D-San Antonio) and Vicente Gonzalez (D-McAllen).
U.S. Rep. Veronica Escobar (D-El Paso) endorsed O’Rourke.
HD138: Houston attorney Akilah Bacy established a campaign committee for a potential challenge of Rep. Dwayne Bohac (R-Houston). Her campaign contribution history suggests she will run as a Democrat.
HD145: Rep.-elect Christina Morales (D-Houston) will be sworn in on Monday at 3 p.m. CDT.
New CTA: Austin court administrator Jessica Tiedt, who lives in the Williamson Co. portion of the city, established a campaign committee but did not indicate which state office she might seek. Tiedt unsuccessfully ran for Williamson County Clerk in 2018, losing the general election to Nancy Rister (R), 53%-47%. She appears to reside in HD136, currently held by Rep. John Bucy III (D-Cedar Park), and SD5, currently held by Sen. Charles Schwertner (R-Georgetown), who was just re-elected to a four-year term in November.
Non-citizen Voter Probe: Steve McCraw, director of the Texas Dept. of Public Safety, took responsibility for providing the Secretary of State’s office with flawed data that it used to alert counties about potentially illegally registered non-citizens. McCraw testified before the Senate Criminal Justice Committee earlier this week that poor communications between the agencies led to mistakes in the data.
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