Abbott backs GOP legislator’s rival
Rare involvement in House primary done to earn support for his agenda
AUSTIN — In a move that promises to deepen divisions in the Texas Republican Party, Gov. Greg Abbott on Monday endorsed a GOP challenger to incumbent state Rep. Sarah Davis of Houston.
Abbott gave his public thumbs-up to Susanna Dokupil, a more conservative Republican like Abbott, who is running against the more moderate Davis, who also touts herself as “a conservative voice in Austin.”
The announcement was the first endorsement of a legislative challenger by Abbott, who had announced last summer that he would support legislative candidates who supported his positions on issues. In the past, it has been rare for governors to get involved in legislative races so early — if at all.
The monthlong filing period for candidates opened Saturday.
But at a time when Steve Bannon, a former top White House aide to President Donald Trump, is injecting himself in U.S. Senate and congressional races pushing for Republicans to replace liberal and moderate Republicans
with more-conservative Republicans, Abbott’s move is in line with current GOP practices.
“She is the most visible and vocal centrist in the Texas House … and I don’t see what the payoff would be for the governor to get involved in a House primary — which is very unusual,” said Mark Jones, a political science professor at Rice University, which is located in Davis’ district.
“She perfectly reflects the average voter in that district … and if she wins the primary, or if she loses and a Democrat wins in November, he could end up with egg on his face.”
Davis, an attorney, has challenged Abbott’s positions on a number of issues in the past year, including the bathroom bill. She has represented a district that includes West University Place for four terms in the Texas House.
Davis is expected to continue to receive highprofile support from Harris County Judge Ed Emmett, but she’s clearly been targeted by Abbott and other Republicans who want a representative for the district who will more strongly push a more conservative agenda. “We need leaders in Austin who will join me to build a better future for Texas,” Abbott said in his endorsement statement for Dokupil.
“I trust Susanna, and I know voters in House District 134 can trust her too to fight for their needs in Austin, Texas. Susanna is a principled conservative who will be a true champion for the people of House District 134, and I am proud to support her in the upcoming election.”
Dokupil, who is CEO of Paladin Strategies, a strategic communications firm based in Houston, worked for Abbott as assistant solicitor general while he was Texas attorney general, before becoming governor. There, she handled religious liberty issues, he said.
Abbott said he has known Dokupil for more than a decade.
Davis dismisses move
Davis is a part of the House leadership team. She chairs the House General Investigating and Ethics Committee, serves as chair for health and human services issues on the House Appropriations Committee and is a member of the influential Calendars Committee that sets the House schedule.
In a statement, Davis largely dismissed Abbott’s endorsement of her challenger, who said she represents the views of the district better than the incumbent.
“I have always voted my uniquely independent district, and when it comes to campaign season I have always stood on my own, which is why I outperformed Republicans up and down the ballot in the last mid-term election,” Davis said.
“Republican voters in (House District) 134 will not be told for whom to vote, and will not nominate a candidate who will be so easily defeated in the fall because they are a wholly-owned subsidiary of the extremist fringe group, Empower Texans.”
Davis’ west Houston District 134 is known to support both Republican and Democratic candidates.
In the 2016 general election, Democrat Hillary Clinton beat thencandidate Donald Trump by 15 percentage points. Davis won re-election to her fourth term that year, claiming 54 percent of the vote.
Davis’ tightest race was her first appearance in the general election. In 2010, she won 50.68 percent of the vote, barely besting incumbent Democrat Ellen Cohen.
More to come
Abbott, who has high popularity in polls as he has filed for re-election, said he intends to endorse more candidates for office in coming weeks.
The governor issued his first endorsement in the 2018 House primaries last week for state Rep. Paul Workman, an Austin Republican who faces a GOP challenger from Jay Wiley. Workman authored Abbott-supported legislation during the special session.
During both the regular and special sessions this year, Abbott sparred with House leaders over his support for the bathroom bill, new restrictions on the powers of cities, further restrictions on abortion and other issues.
When Abbott pressed Republicans to register their support for each item on his 20-piece special session agenda this summer, Davis and other key House chairs refused. She supported only one of the governor’s bills, and it sought to extend operations for a task force to study maternal mortality.
Instead, she pressed the governor to extend his special session call to include ethics issues and reverse millions of dollars in therapy cuts for children with disabilities. The governor’s office accused her of “showboating.”
Amid opposition to his agenda, the governor had said that he intended to get involved in some legislative races, ostensibly to campaign against some of those who opposed him.
Increasingly, in recent years Texas Republicans have been split between moderate and far-right conservative factions, with Abbott and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick in the latter group.
As a part of that split between GOP factions, the Harris County Republican Party on Monday night was to consider a move filed by Davis’ conservative opponents in the GOP to censure her for being too liberal on many issues — including abortion, personal accountability, school choice, vaccinations and not supporting the state party platform.
But on Sunday night, the sponsors — Scott Bowen and Rolando Garcia, chairmen of Senate Districts 11 and 15, respectively — decided not to pursue the matter, said Vlad Davidiuk, spokesman for the county Republican party.
‘Crossover appeal’
Fifty-one of Davis’ supporters signed a letter in rebuttal, saying Davis has “crossover appeal” and several of her votes stressed in the resolution were echoed by Republicans across both chambers.
“If censure advocates get their way, we’ll need to censure a majority of the Harris County Republican delegation,” read the letter.
“We risk losing Davis’ seat to another liberal Democrat who will not only vote against us on abortion, but on virtually every issue. Why should we cut off our nose to spite our face?”