Hegar declares win over West in bid to take on Cornyn
WASHINGTON — Former Air Force pilot MJ Hegar late Tuesday declared victory over longtime state Sen. Royce West in the Democratic runoff to take on U.S. Sen. John Cornyn.
“I am humbled by the support we have received from all across the state, and am confident we have a decisive victory,” Hegar said in a statement.
Though Hegar’s lead appeared to hold as votes rolled in, West — a Dallas Democrat who would be the state’s first Black U.S. senator — held out hope, tweeting that there were “still many boxes out in urban centers” and that he would “evaluate the vote totals again in the morning.”
A political newcomer, Hegar nonetheless led in fundraising and the limited polling throughout the race. She has the backing of the Democratic establishment in D.C. and finished first in the crowded Democratic primary in March.
Hegar said Tuesday she’s confident she has grassroots enthusiasm heading into the general election and laid into Cornyn for his response to the coronavirus and for deny
ing that systemic racism exists. She said the record-breaking turnout in the runoff should send a message. More than 1.3 million Texans voted in Tuesday’s runoffs, with more than 900,000 casting ballots in the Democratic Senate runoff.
“I know that’s what’s going to cause John Cornyn to lose sleep tonight,” Hegar said. “A primary runoff electorate should be really small. This is a symptom of trouble coming to John Cornyn this fall.”
Hegar is just the type of candidate the party has sought nationally since 2018, when the suburbs began to revolt against President Donald Trump, helping hand Democrats control of the House.
She is a decorated war veteran who Democrats hope can appeal to disillusioned Republicans, especially in the suburbs, where she grew up and still lives — and where the party hopes to gain ground in November. Hegar is from Williamson County, a long-red bastion north of Austin that has started to shift politically as it grows. Her only political experience was a 2018 run in a congressional district including the county, where she came within 3 points of unseating U.S. Rep. John Carter, a veteran Republican congressman.
In the Senate race, Hegar led in fundraising and the polls, raising more than $6 million overall. She drew the backing of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee early in the campaign and has garnered support from a slew of national progressive groups, which spent heavily in the final weeks of the race.
West, who was significantly outspent by his opponent — and who was also the target of Cornyn campaign ads early in the primary — said the race felt like David and Goliath.
“But I was fighting two Goliaths as opposed to one,” West said.
The Democratic primary — which originally boasted a dozen candidates — lasted more than a year and ended in a bitter battle between Hegar and West, who went on the offensive in the final weeks of the race after keeping mostly focused on Cornyn throughout.
In ads, online and in a tense final debate, West painted Hegar as a Democrat in name only, pointing to a $10 donation she made to Cornyn in 2011, as well as a 2016 vote in the Republican presidential primary. West also raised questions about Hegar’s past use of the Gadsden flag on Facebook. The yellow “Don’t Tread On Me” flag was popular among the Tea Party around the time she posted it. His campaign ran ads urging voters to pick a “real Democrat.”
A group representing some 10,000 Black Democrats in Texas, meanwhile, accused the DSCC of trying to “undercut” West’s campaign by telling donors not to give to him.
The DSCC has denied the claims, but the Texas Coalition of Black Democrats nonetheless wrote to Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York that “if Black Democrats come to believe the United States Senate primary was rigged against Senator West, it will only hurt MJ Hegar in the general election, if she wins the runoff election.”
Hegar has said the donation to Cornyn was one of several she made in 2011 to Republicans and Democrats alike. She’s said her 2016 GOP primary vote was for Carly Fiorina and was a protest of Trump’s candidacy. And she has said she posted the Gadsden flag because of its association with the military, not any political movement.
Hegar in turn had accused West of using his position in the state Senate to enrich himself.
“We have corruption, we have money in politics, we have politicians — frankly like you, Royce — who have become millionaires in office and have spent their time legislating in their own best interests instead of the interests of their constituents,” Hegar said in a debate in late June. “I’m done with it, I’m tired of it, and so is Texas.”
West said on Tuesday night that if Hegar wins, he would be willing to sit down and visit with her “if she wants to.”
“If we can work through some issues, then I will be campaigning with her,” West said.
The winner will face Cornyn, a three-term senator and Trump ally whom Democrats plan to attack over his response to the coronavirus and his strong record of backing the president’s priorities.
Cornyn’s campaign started running ads playing up the intraparty fight between West and Hegar. The senator did the same on Twitter.
“Why the national Democrats are doing this to a longtime Democrat state senator is remarkable,” Cornyn tweeted about the DSCC spending to support Hegar. “This is all on behalf of a candidate that voted in the last Republican presidential primary, and donated $ to me and other Rs. Hard to know what someone like that actually believes. Amazing transformation.”
Cornyn, meanwhile, has more than $14 million to fend off the challenge, and his campaign says he just posted his best fundraising quarter yet, pulling in $3.5 million during the second quarter of the year. But polling indicates he’s not well known by Texans and his poll numbers have remained stagnant throughout the campaign, though recent polls have also shown him leading Hegar.