Candidates running for more than one-third of Texas legislative seats have been declared elected by the Secretary of State because they are officially unopposed in the general election.
Nearly all of the unopposed candidates are incumbents, but five members-elect have also been declared elected:
- Sen.-elect Phil King (R-Weatherford)
- Sen.-elect Mayes Middleton (R-Wallisville)
- Sen.-elect Kevin Sparks (R-Midland)
- Rep.-elect Charles Cunningham (R-Humble); and
- Rep.-elect Carl Tepper (R-Lubbock).
The list of “declared electeds” includes nearly 200 district judges and 44 district attorneys. The list excludes hundreds of county office candidates who face no opposition in the general election. In at least 117 counties, none of the county-level offices are contested.
GOV (Likely R): Gov. Greg Abbott’s (R) campaign released a new Spanish-language ad, “Familia,” that continues his biographical advertising theme.
Democratic challenger Beto O’Rourke is scheduled to resume in-person campaign events on Friday following his recuperation from a bacterial infection.
O’Rourke’s campaign has agreed to a Sept. 30 debate in the Rio Grande Valley, which is the only debate the Abbott campaign said it would accept.
LTGOV (Lean R): Tarrant County Judge Glen Whitley (R) said he supports Democratic challenger Mike Collier over Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick (R) during a WFAA-TV political podcast that aired Sunday. “He’s someone who understands local control, and that’s what I’m looking for,” Whitley said. In a tweet, Patrick called Collier and Whitley “two-of-a-kind, tax hiking, big spenders.” Whitley, who is not seeking re-election, responded that “local property taxes are paying for state responsibilities, and instead of partnership we get rhetoric.”
RRC (Likely R): Democratic challenger Luke Warford’s campaign released a Data for Progress poll showing him within 4 points of Comm. Wayne Christian (R), 44%-40%. More than 80% of voters “haven’t heard enough to say” whether they have a favorable or unfavorable opinion of either candidate.
SD27 open (Lean D): A new Ragnar Research Partners poll conducted for the Adam Hinojosa (R) campaign shows him leading Morgan LaMantia (D), 43%-38%, with about one in five voters undecided. He is over-performing the generic Republican (41%) while LaMantia is under-performing the generic Democrat (46%), according to the polling memo.
The poll of 400 “likely voters” was conducted via mobile lines (97%) and landlines (3%) by live operators and was in the field August 23-25. Its stated margin of error is ±4.9%.
Americans for Prosperity Action endorsed Hinojosa.
CD34 (Lean D): The Congressional Leadership Fund announced it was reserving $3M in advertising time, the largest single amount for any seat in this round of reservations, to support the re-election of U.S. Rep. Mayra Flores (R-Los Indios).
©2022 Texas Election Source LLC
