CD7: Bellaire speech pathologist and former Harris Co. Dept. of Education trustee Debra Kerner has filed a statement of candidacy with the Federal Election Commission for a potential challenge to U.S. Rep. John Culberson (R-Houston) as a Democrat. Kerner won a six-year term in 2008 and did not seek re-election in 2014. She is the third Democrat to file in the last two weeks, joining four-time candidate James Cargas and Houston medical center development director Joshua Butler. Culberson also has a potential primary challenger in Houston businessman David Balat.
CD32: Following U.S. Rep. Pete Sessions’s (R-Dallas) contentious town hall meeting in Richardson on Saturday, Dallas ISD Trustee Miguel Solis tweeted that Sessions’s constituents “deserve direct answers to their questions, not pivots and message points,” then concluded, “It’s time for new leadership.” Rumored to be a potential Democratic challenger to Sessions, Solis won a 2013 special election and was re-elected with 68% of the vote a year later. He was selected as board president later in 2014, then first vice president in 2015.
Early Voting Period: A bill that would reduce the period by which Texans could vote early in person was pulled down by its author. Rep. Mark Keough’s (R-The Woodlands) bill would have given voters seven days to vote early, instead of the 12 days in current law, and shifted it closer to Election Day. The latter provision would have given county election officials just one day to complete the transition from the early voting period – which typically uses different polling places – to Election Day. Ongoing litigation over the state’s Voter ID law and redistricting efforts could be complicated by passage of a bill seen by some as suppressing turnout. Keough’s office said the bill was intended to reduce costs to counties, not reduce turnout.
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