Green Party: The Green Party of Texas filed paperwork with the Secretary of State to register as a political party for the 2018 general election. The party lost automatic access to the ballot when none of its 2016 statewide candidates received at least 5% of the vote. The party must collect at least 47,183 valid signatures from registered voters who did not participate in any other party’s primary or convention during a 75-day window beginning in mid-March. Four candidates filed to run as Green Party candidates in 2018.

HD8 open: The Texas Farm Bureau AGFUND endorsed Cody Harris in the Republican primary to succeed retiring Rep. Byron Cook (R-Corsicana).

HD80: Former Webb County Judge Danny Valdez told the Laredo Morning Times’s Julia Wallace that he will take his ballot access fight to the Texas Supreme Court. Last week, the Third District Court of Appeals denied his petition to place his name on the Democratic primary ballot. Valdez mailed his application to a former address of the Texas Democratic Party. In a two-page ruling, Justice Cindy Olson Bourland 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.

HD100: The Dallas Morning News endorsed Rep. Eric Johnson (D-Dallas) for re-election.

CD2 open: The Kathaleen Wall campaign released its first campaign ad, which begins with Wall describing growing up “in a tiny house with seven kids and one bathroom” and speculating that Congress “might actually function” if everyone there came from the same humble experience.

CD5 open: The campaign of Rep. Kenneth Sheets (R-Mesquite) announced he has been endorsed by 40 current and former members of the Texas House.

CD27 open: Former Gov. Rick Perry (R) endorsed Bech Bruun for the seat being vacated by U.S. Rep. Blake Farenthold (R-Corpus Christi). Perry appointed Bruun to the Texas Water Development Board in 2013.

CD33: The Dallas Morning News endorsed U.S. Rep. Marc Veasey (D-Fort Worth) for re-election.

Tarrant Co.: Justice of the Peace Russell Casey (R) has sued the Tarrant Co. Republican Party to have his two challengers declared ineligible. Party chair Tim O’Hare called the suit is “a last-ditch effort from a desperate officeholder,” according to a report by the Fort Worth Star-Telegram’s Anna Tinsley. “Nobody in the Republican Party wants him to be our nominee.” The suit claims that challengers Bill Brandt and Lenny Lopez submitted petitions with too few valid petitions. Casey was reprimanded last year by the State Commission on Judicial Conduct for an improper relationship with a former clerk. No Democrat is running for the seat.

Voter Fraud Commission: President Trump has disbanded an advisory commission charged with studying voter fraud during the 2016 election. The Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity was the subject of at least nine lawsuits seeking to make its operations more transparent, including a suit filed by one of its 11 members. A number of states, including Texas, declined to provide the commission with all of the information it requested and instead offered information that any member of the public could obtain. The commission met just twice since its inception. Trump has asked the U.S. Dept. of Homeland Security to review the commission’s work.

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