State of Play for Open-seat Races

Last week, we explored how the success rate of open-seat primary candidates varied with how their contribution totals ranked among their rival candidates. In general, money has been a pretty good predictor of primary success since at least 2006, the first year of our...

Incumbents Generally Ahead in 30-day-out Reports

State candidates with primary opponents were required to file 30-day-out campaign finance reports on Monday. These are normally accessible online early the next morning, but today they were not available until late afternoon. We are in the process of going through the...

Campaign News for January 25

TAB Endorsements: The Texas Assoc. of Business PAC released its list of endorsements for the 2018 primaries. The list is mostly comprised of incumbents, but the group also endorsed: Angela Paxton for open SD8 Cody Harris for open HD8 Cynthia Flores for open HD52...

Endorsement and Election News for January 23

AGRIC: The Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Assoc. PAC, Texas Cattle Feeders Assoc. PAC and the Texas Assoc. of Dairymen PAC endorsed Comm. Sid Miller. SD2: The Manufacturers PAC of Texas endorsed Rep. Cindy Burkett (R-Sunnyvale) over Sen. Bob Hall (R-Edgewood)....

Separation Seen in Some House Open-seat Races

January semiannual reports were due for state officeholders and candidates on Tuesday. They cover contributions received and expenditures made during the second half of 2017. For most primary challengers and open-seat candidates, they are the first window into their...

Greens Seek Comeback and Other News for January 3

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....

Election News for December 21

CD27 open: The Congressional ethics panel investigating U.S. Rep. Blake Farenthold (R-Corpus Christi) has expanded its scope to include whether government resources were used for campaign activities and whether Farenthold made false statements or omissions. Farenthold...

Candidate Filing and Endorsement News for November 21

Filing for a place on the 2018 continues until 6 p.m. local time on December 11. Please see our Crib Sheets for candidates’ filing status. Many party offices have limited hours, or are closed entirely, for the Thanksgiving weekend. GOV: Houston council member Dwight...

State Candidate and Endorsement News for November 16

Filing for a place on the 2018 continues until 6 p.m. local time on December 11. Please see our Crib Sheets for candidates’ filing status. HD99: Fort Worth security solutions businessman and 2016 primary challenger Bo French announced he would seek a rematch against...

Legislative and Congressional Candidate News for November 8

CD2 open: Rep. Kevin Roberts (R-Houston) formed a campaign committee and announced he would seek the seat being vacated by U.S. Rep. Ted Poe (R-Humble). Roberts will not be seeking re-election to a second term in the state House. HD8 open: Palestine real estate broker...