SD19 special: The campaign of Rep. Roland Gutierrez (D-San Antonio) announced the endorsements of Rep. Ina Minjarez (D-San Antonio), Bexar County Judge Nelson Wolff (D), and Bexar Co. Comms. Chico Rodriguez (D) and Paul Elizondo (D). Minjarez is the fourth Bexar Co. Democratic legislator to endorse Gutierrez. Leo Pacheco, the Democratic nominee for HD118, has also endorsed Gutierrez.
Meanwhile, San Antonio attorney Charlie Urbina Jones reactivated his campaign committee for the race. A longtime Democratic activist, Jones has been the Texas Democratic Veterans’ representative on the State Democratic Executive Committee. He unsuccessfully sought the chairmanship of the Texas Democratic Party in 2006 and the Bexar Co. Democratic Party in 2002, and he lost a 1998 general election challenge to then-U.S. Rep. Henry Bonilla (R-San Antonio), 64%-35%. Former Rep. and U.S. Rep. Pete Gallego (D-Alpine) is also in the race.
LAND: Donald Trump Jr. has canceled a scheduled fundraiser in New York City for Comm. George P. Bush (R) because of negative statements made by Bush family members (particularly his father Jeb) about President Trump, reported Axios’s Jomathan Swan and Alayna Treene. The President’s son endorsed Bush prior to the March primary.
SEN: The Texas Democratic Party and the campaign of U.S. Rep. Beto O’Rourke (D-El Paso) have formed a joint fundraising committee, Texas Victory 2018.
CD27 open: Campaign finance reports were due yesterday (Monday) from candidates for the special election for the unexpired term of former U.S. Rep. Blake Farenthold (R-Corpus Christi), and four candidates filed those reports. Three more candidates filed those reports today (Tuesday). Results for the seven candidates are shown below:
- Roy Barrera (D) – raised less than $100, spent less than $1K and has $5K on hand
- Bech Bruun (R) – raised $111K, spent $199K and has less than $2K on hand
- Michael Cloud (R) – raised $95K, spent $146K and has $26K on hand
- Judith Cutright (I) – raised $1K, spent $2K and has less than $1K on hand
- Eric Holguin (D) – raised $15K, spent $15K and has $6K on hand
- Marty Perez (R) – raised $129K, spent $122K and has $7K on hand; and
- Mike Westergren (D) – raised $9K, spent $8K and has $4K on hand
Perez gave his campaign $128K, which accounts for 99.4% of his contribution total. Independent Chris Suprun and Libertarian Daniel Tinus have not filed reports as far as we can tell.
Plano: Council member Tom Harrison has filed suit to prevent his recall from appearing on the November ballot. In April, a petition signed by 4,425 voters was accepted by the city secretary, which is more than 30% of the number of votes cast in the 2015 election in which Harrison was elected. The council, minus Harrison, unanimously ordered the recall to coincide with the general election.
Harrison’s suit argues that the city should have used the 2017 election because it was the most recent. In that case, the petition would have needed at least 8,163 signatures. If the court agrees with Harrison, the recall petition would be decertified, and those signatures could not be re-used, meaning any new effort to recall him would have to start over at zero. The recall petition was motivated by a series of controversial social media posts made by Harrison or individuals with access to his account.
Primary Turnout: We do not consider the District of Columbia a state and have always excluded it from analyses comparing turnout in Texas to that of other states. If we did, Texas would have fallen one more place down those rankings because 17.6% of the District’s registered voters turned out for today’s primary election there. Texas currently ranks 21st out of the 26 states that have held primary elections so far this year.
Texas finished 29th out of the 39 states that held presidential primary elections in 2016.
©2018 Texas Election Source LLC
