Early voting ended today (Tuesday) in most jurisdictions holding runoff elections on June 15 and continued in jurisdictions holding runoff elections on June 22. In Abilene, just under 4K people voted early in the P5 runoff between incumbent Kyle McAlister and challenger Cory Clements, representing an 18% drop from early voting in the June 2018 runoff.
HD26: Rep. Rick Miller (R-Sugar Land) announced he would seek re-election. He has at least two opponents with active campaign accounts: former Fort Bend Co. Republican chair Jacey Jetton and Sugar Land development director Rish Oberoi, a Democrat.
HD100: Dallas attorney Jasmine Crockett announced she would seek the seat being vacated by Rep. Eric Johnson (D-Dallas), who won the Dallas mayoral runoff.
CD31: Georgetown physician Murray Holcomb established a campaign committee for a potential challenge of U.S. Rep. John Carter (R-Round Rock) as a Democrat, becoming at least the fifth Democrat to take a formal step toward challenging Carter.
Legislation: Gov. Greg Abbott signed House Bill 2504 by Rep. Drew Springer (R-Muenster) into law. The bill requires candidates nominated at party conventions, which are used instead of primaries by minor parties in Texas, to pay the same filing fees or submit the same number of signatures on a petition as Democratic or Republican candidates, who run in primary elections. The bill also changes the threshold for a minor party’s automatic qualification for the general election ballot. Under current law, at least one statewide candidate must receive at least 5% of the vote for the party to qualify for the next general election automatically. House Bill 2504 changes that threshold to at least 2% of the vote statewide at least once in the five previous general election cycles. This will restore the Green Party’s access to the ballot, which it lost in 2016 and failed to regain in 2018.
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