Early voting ended today (Tuesday) in jurisdictions holding runoff elections on June 22 and continued in jurisdictions holding runoff elections on June 29.
RRC: Comm. Wayne Christian (R) was elected Chair by his two colleagues, consistent with the customary rotation of the chairing duties among the commissioners. He succeeds Christi Craddick (R), who was re-elected in November to a six-year term on the commission. Comm. Ryan Sitton (R) is seeking re-election in 2020.
HD68: Rotan resident Andrew Nelson announced he would challenge Rep. Drew Springer (R-Muenster) as a Democrat. He would be the first Democrat to seek the seat in its current configuration and the first Democrat to run for HD68 since former Rep. David Counts (D-Knox City) was paired with Rep. Rick Hardcastle (R-Vernon) in 2002. The district was more than 30 points redder than the state in 2018 and has been steadily becoming more Republican since 2002, when it was just 6% redder than the state as a whole. The only districts that was redder in 2018 was HD60, which is held by Rep. Mike Lang (R-Granbury).
HD138: Houston attorney Josh Wallenstein kicked off his campaign to challenge Rep. Dwayne Bohac (R-Houston) as a Democrat. Wallenstein unsuccessfully ran for Harris Co. Dept. of Education in 2018, narrowly losing the Democratic runoff, 50.2%-49.8%.
CD24: The campaign of Democratic candidate Kim Olson released a new video, “Battles,” reminiscent of M.J. Hegar’s “Doors” ad. In this video, Olson recounts her efforts to change policies during her military service and her post-military career.
CD32: Political commentator and former U.S. Rep. Allen West (R-Fla.) will announce “the opportunity that I will endeavor to pursue” during a live YouTube event on July 3. He is widely expected to announce a challenge of U.S. Rep. Colin Allred (D-Dallas), although his announcement teasing the announcement also indicates he is considering running for U.S. Senate and state Republican Party chair. West’s initial race for Congress came in 2008, when he challenged a freshman Democrat who had just beaten a long-time Republican incumbent. In that race in Florida, West had no primary opposition, but he lost the general election, 55%-45%. Two years later, West ran again and won the rematch against the Democratic incumbent, 54%-46%. West again was unopposed in the Republican primary. In 2012, West’s district was redrawn and become more Democratic, so he ran in an adjacent district, defeating a local sheriff for the Republican nomination. West lost the general election by a little over 2K votes, conceding after several recounts. In 2013, U.S. Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Tyler) voted for West as Speaker of the U.S. House even though West was no longer a member. West moved to Texas in 2014 and was appointed to the Sunset Advisory Commission by Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick (R) in 2016.
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