LTGOV: Democratic challenger Mike Collier’s campaign announced he raised around $500K during the last half of 2017 and will report around $143K on hand. Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick (R) has not yet released fundraising totals. He raised nearly $4M during the last 12 days of June and reported a war chest of more than $16M as of June 30.

SD8 open: The Phillip Huffines campaign announced he raised nearly $1.1M during the second half of 2017. He faces Angela Paxton for the Republican nomination to succeed Sen. Van Taylor (R-Plano), who is running for CD3.

HD80: The Texas Supreme Court denied former Webb County Judge Danny Valdez’s petition to be placed on the Democratic primary ballot. Valdez mailed his application to a previous address of the Texas Democratic Party he had located online. The decision leaves in place a lower court ruling denying Valdez’s claim. That court found that the Legislature “unambiguously placed the risk of untimely delivery or nondelivery on the candidate who mails his or her application and filing fee, and the facts presented neither justify nor authorize a departure from that allocation.” Rep. Tracy King (D-Batesville) is otherwise unopposed for re-election.

HD118: Sen. Jose Menendez (D-San Antonio) endorsed Rep. Tomas Uresti (D-San Antonio).

Denton: Council member Dalton Gregory announced he would not seek re-election. He was first elected to the council in 2009 and has been re-elected four times. The retired educator told colleagues he looked forward to a full retirement.

Leander: Mayor Chris Fielder announced he would not seek re-election. Fielder was first elected mayor in 2012 after serving five years on the council.

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