Abbott calls election to replace Farenthold
Special vote is set for 27th District seat after his resignation
Gov. Greg Abbott called Tuesday for an emergency special election to be held June 30 to replace former U.S. Rep. Blake Farenthold, a Republican who resigned this month in the face of an ethics probe into past allegations of sexual harassment.
Abbott’s decision on Tuesday came a day after Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton issued an opinion saying that the governor could invoke emergency powers for an expedited election in Farenthold’s 27th Congressional District, which is still recovering from Hurricane Harvey.
“All counties contained within this district continue to be under the state disaster declaration related to the devastation of Hurricane Harvey, making it imperative that we fill this vacancy as soon as possible,” Abbott said.
“Hurricane relief efforts depend heavily on action at the federal level, which can only occur if Texans residing in disaster zones have full and effective representation in Congress.”
Local election officials estimate the costs at more than $200,000 — to be borne by the 13 counties in the 27th District.
The current mess was years in the making. Farenthold, who rode into Congress on a tea party wave in 2010, had been under an ethics cloud since 2014, when a 27-year-old former press secretary, Lauren Greene, hit him with a lawsuit for sexual harassment. Though the suit was settled out of court a year later, it led to a House Ethics Committee investigation that lay largely dormant until late last year, when the #MeToo movement gathered steam and several other Farenthold staffers went public with their own accusations.
A series of revelations about leading men in business, politics and the media nationwide resulted in a push for greater transparency in Congress, which in turn resulted in the public exposure of Farenthold’s $84,000 taxpayer settlement with Greene, which had remained confidential since 2015.
Farenthold publicly agreed to repay the settlement in December, even as he announced that he would not seek re-election in 2018 to a fifth term. But until he suddenly announced his resignation on April 6 — effective the same day — he had been expected to serve out the remainder of his term, which runs until January.