SEN: Plano winemaker Maurice Ellison Armstrong created a CrowdPAC page for a potential challenge of U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz (R) as a Democrat. Bedford resident Aaron Gwaltney created a CrowdPAC page to run as an independent.

CD10: Joe Miguez created a CrowdPAC page for a potential challenge of U.S. Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Austin) as a Democrat. Miguez, a member of Austin’s Human Rights Comm. and a former military intelligence analyst, said he is “a lifelong progressive Democrat” who is “seriously considering running for Congress.”

See our 2018 Challengers page for all 152 challengers and open seat candidates who we confirm have taken a formal step toward running for state and federal office from Texas in 2018.

Southlake: The city council set a special election for September 9 to fill the unexpired term of former council member Gary Fawks, who resigned last month because of a job change. The filing period will be June 9 through July 10. Early voting will be held August 25 to September 5.

Oklahoma Vacancies: This week’s resignation of Oklahoma state Sen. Dan Newberry (R-Tulsa, Okla.) creates the seventh vacancy in the Oklahoma Legislature. He became the sixth lawmaker, all Republicans, to resign this year. Three, including Newberry, resigned to return to the private sector and three left public office in the wake of scandals. During the legislative session, Oklahoma state Rep. David Brumbaugh (R-Broken Bow, Okla.) died from a heart attack. Like Texas, Oklahoma fills its legislative vacancies via special elections. Seventeen candidates filed for the first two of those special elections.

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