Nov 8, 2020 | General Elections, House Race Analyses
This is the first in a series of periodic analyses of the 2020 general election. The signs pointed to further Democratic gains in the Texas House of Representatives. Entering Election Day, there were 83 Republican-held seats and 67 Democrat-held seats. Two years...
Nov 1, 2020 | House Race Analyses, Political Climate
Yesterday (Saturday), we posed two fundamental questions that will be answered Tuesday, or shortly thereafter. We gave our best guess on the first question, whether Joe Biden will become the first Democratic presidential nominee to carry Texas since 1976 (No, but...
Oct 28, 2020 | Campaign Finance
Yesterday’s report about campaign finance results for key House races was missing details about a number of Democratic candidates’ 8-day-out reports. To be clear, they filed their reports on time, but the contribution and expenditure details were not yet available...
Oct 27, 2020 | breaking-news, Campaign Finance
The battle for the Texas House got expensive. Candidates in competitive seats collectively raised $39.3M during the past month, much of through in-kind contributions from a handful of sources. Republicans, bolstered by huge spending by Texans for Lawsuit Reform...
Oct 18, 2020 | Political Climate
Our latest model run moves the presidential race in Texas to Toss Up and projects a narrow Democratic majority in the Texas House when the Legislature convenes in January. Another four Republican-held House seats are within 2 percentage points of potentially adding to...
Oct 13, 2020 | Campaign News
Early voting has begun across Texas for the November 3 general election and continues through October 30. By most accounts, turnout is off to a torrid start. The Harris Co. Clerk’s office tweeted that 128K people voted in person today, plus 41K absentee ballots...
Oct 11, 2020 | Political Climate
With three weeks to go before the general election, the state of play up and down the ballot remains remarkably stable across Texas. However, as races remain close, that stability could mask a lot of volatility within polls’ margins of errors and assumptions about who...
Oct 6, 2020 | Campaign Finance
Statewide and legislative candidates facing general election opposition reported raising nearly $27M since July 1. Democrats accounted for $12.4M of that figure, and Republican candidates raised $14.6M. Sixteen challengers out-raised their incumbent opponents for the...
Sep 9, 2020 | Campaign News
SD30 special (Safe Republican): The Texas Oil & Gas Assoc. PAC endorsed Rep. Drew Springe (R-Muenster). HD96 open (Toss Up): Gov. Greg Abbott (R) endorsed Republican nominee David Cook. HD138 open (Lean Democratic): The Texas State Teachers Assoc. endorsed...
Aug 28, 2020 | Campaign News
SD30 special (Safe Republican): Six candidates filed for the abbreviated race to fill the unexpired term of Sen. Pat Fallon (R-Prosper), who is running for Congress: Craig Carter (R), Nocona boot manufacturing business owner and unsuccessful 2018 primary challenger...
Aug 23, 2020 | House Race Analyses
For much of the past decade-plus, Harris Co. experienced a phenomenon I called “partisan mood swings.” Democrats running countywide – potentially all of them – tended to win in presidential election years. Republicans running countywide – often all of them – tended to...
Aug 3, 2020 | Campaign News
Former President Barack Obama released his “first wave” of 2020 endorsements, which included 27 Texas House and U.S. House incumbents, challengers and open-seat candidates: House incumbents Erin Zwiener (HD45), James Talarico (HD52), Jessica González (HD104), Terry...
