Sep 28, 2020 | Campaign News
As expected, the Fifth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals issued an administrative stay to prevent a lower court ruling from restoring the single-punch, straight-party voting option to the general election ballot. The state will seek an emergency stay – an administrative...
Sep 25, 2020 | Campaign News
Single-punch, straight-party voting is back … for now. With 17 days to go before voters will begin going to the polls (assuming that lawsuit fails), a federal judge has issued a preliminary injunction against enforcing a state law, enacted in 2017, that eliminated the...
Sep 7, 2020 | House Race Analyses
We continue our analysis of potentially competitive Texas House districts with an exploration of Brazos, Brazoria and Fort Bend Counties (We admit we are stretching the definition of Southeastern Texas to include Brazos Co.). Brazos County HD14 (Lean Republican) sits...
Aug 15, 2020 | House Race Analyses
When former U.S. Rep. Beto O’Rourke (D-El Paso) edged out U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz (R), 49.9%-49.2%, in Tarrant Co., he became the first Democrat to win countywide since 1994. Despite the narrow loss, Cruz won every Republican-held district in 2018. Some of them were very...
Aug 9, 2020 | House Race Analyses
Dallas Co. was the epicenter of Democrats’ 2018 surge. They flipped five House seats, one Senate seat and one congressional seat. They swept every countywide office. Former U.S. Rep. Beto O’Rourke (D-El Paso) doubled up U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, beating him by 33 points....
Aug 2, 2020 | House Race Analyses
Four suburban North Texas districts are at various stages of turning increasingly competitive or outright friendly to Democratic candidates. One flipped in 2018. Two more are poised to flip in 2020, and the fourth may remain just out of reach, even though it, like the...
Jun 24, 2020 | Campaign News
A federal court has dismissed the suit filed by the Texas Democratic Party and others to restore the single-punch, straight-party option for the general election. The court ruled that the plaintiffs lacked standing. “Plaintiffs filed this lawsuit premised on their...
Mar 5, 2020 | Campaign News
SD14 special: Rep. Eddie Rodriguez (D-Austin) has scheduled a Saturday morning “announcement regarding my decision whether to run” for the seat being vacated by Sen. Kirk Watson (D-Austin). In our experience, no one schedules an event to announce they’re not running....
Nov 28, 2018 | House Race Analyses, Straight-ticket Voting
When Rep. Ron Simmons (R-Carrollton), author of the bill that ends single-punch, straight-party voting in 2020, narrowly lost to Democratic challenger Michelle Beckley, we assumed straight-party voting was the reason. After all, in the largest counties, several...
Nov 25, 2018 | Straight-ticket Voting
Tarrant Co., an epicenter of the Tea Party movement and a Republican stronghold for decades, narrowly preferred U.S. Rep. Beto O’Rourke (D-El Paso) over U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz (D). O’Rourke became the first Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate to carry the county since...
Nov 20, 2018 | Straight-ticket Voting
More than 930K Harris Co. voters cast a straight-party vote in 2018, representing more than three quarters of all votes cast there, shattering county records for straight-party voting. Democratic candidates enjoyed a straight-party advantage of more than 105K votes on...
Nov 18, 2018 | Campaign News, Straight-ticket Voting
Two out of every three Texan voters cast a straight-party ballot in the 2018 general election, the highest such percentage for any election for which data is available and likely the highest since at least the end of the poll tax era. Unless the Legislature acts, it...