EX-DA Lahood eyes run for state House seat
Former Bexar County District Attorney Nico Lahood is seriously considering a Republican primary run for state representative.
The fiery former Democrat said he is giving “prayerful consideration” to launching a campaign in Texas House District 122, the seat currently held by maverick San Antonio Republican Lyle Larson.
“Public service is in my heart, obviously,” Lahood said Thursday. “I’m in a season where I’m focusing on my kids right now and my family and our (law) firm and our clients, and I’m happy where God has me. But a state representative position gets me involved in bigger and broader discussions of ideas.”
This exploration of a Texas House campaign is an unexpected development for Lahood, whose only previously expressed interest in public office involved district attorney.
In 2010, Lahood ran an energetic general election campaign against four-term Republican DA Susan Reed, ultimately losing by 7.7 percentage points. Four years later, he tried again and unseated Reed, with the help of more than $1 million in donations from superstar personalinjury attorney Thomas J. Henry.
It was a major win for San Antonio Democrats in an otherwise bleak election cycle in which local Republicans gained one congressional seat and one Texas House seat and nearly swept Democrats out of the courthouse.
Lahood never paid much heed to partisan politics, however, and over the course of his tenure as district attorney, his biggest critics tended to be his fellow Democrats.
They were alarmed by the way he used his position to embrace the anti-vax movement, a stance rooted in his belief that a vaccine had contributed to his son’s autism.
Lahood, a devout Christian, also expressed the view that faithful adherence to the tenets of Islam would naturally lead someone to terrorism.
In 2017, Lahood allegedly threatened to “shut down” the practices of two defense attorneys during a dispute in the lead-up to a murder trial. (The State Bar of Texas later ruled that Lahood committed “professional misconduct” and placed him on probation for one year.)
One of the defense attorneys he allegedly threatened was Joe Gonzales, who decided to challenge Lahood in the 2018 Democratic primary for district attorney. Gonzales, with the help of a huge funding boost from progressive sugar daddy George Soros, beat Lahood by more than 18 percentage points.
Eight months after his defeat, Lahood went on the Joe Pags radio show and announced that he no longer considered himself a Democrat.
“The party today has been hijacked by a leftist ideology, a neo-marxist ideology, that is really fascist in nature,” he said.
Lahood said Thursday that he misses the days when people with differing party affiliations could have constructive philosophical debates without succumbing to name-calling.
“People need to be encouraged to critically think through things,” he said. “We’ve lost this ability to talk. It used to be OK to disagree. And it’s missing.
“Ultimately, people have to understand that ideas have consequences. We need to get more in a discussion of ideas. We get caught up in politics, we get caught up in religion. Let’s just talk about ideas and how those ideas affect people.”
Lahood, who has worked as a defense lawyer over the past 2 ½ years, said he was approached by “a number of people” to make one more run for DA, but he concluded that the Texas House would be a better fit.
The lingering question is whether Larson will even seek another term in the House. Larson has always been an independent voice in the Legislature. During this year’s legislative session, he has become a persistent critic of what he sees as shameless gamesmanship on the part of his fellow Republicans.
Larson has blasted GOP lawmakers for pushing voting-restriction legislation and refusing to get behind Medicaid expansion. He also has lamented the lack of a strong GOP response to the two most pressing issues in the state: the COVID-19 pandemic and the shakiness of the Texas power grid.
During a June 14 interview on the Express-news’s Puro Politics podcast, Larson referred to Republican Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick as “soulless” and a “jerk.”
Larson has done little to hide his growing distaste for the twoparty system and has been talked about as a possible independent candidate for higher office. But he has yet to reveal any plans for 2022.
Lahood indicated that his own plans won’t be affected by Larson’s.
“I reached out to him, and I’m still waiting for my call back. So we’re supposed to sit down and talk,” Lahood said. “I believe in going to people. I’m not trying to cheap-shot anybody.
“Lyle and I have had mutual respect for each other in the past, at least I felt that way. So I want to talk with him about it, to see what his intentions are and where he’s at. But the consideration is still there regardless.”