Dowd ends his bid for lieutenant governor
Matthew Dowd, a former aide to President George W. Bush and ABC political commentator, is ending his run for Texas lieutenant governor.
Dowd jumped into the Democratic race in September, promising to take on the “cruel and craven” Republican Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and targeting several of the conservative policies that Patrick had championed earlier this year. He attributed his exit from the race on Tuesday — just days before the deadline to file for the primaries — to a growing and more diverse field for the Democratic nomination.
“When I first announced, the only other candidate was a white male Christian,” he said, referring to Democratic candidate Mike Collier. “A diverse field is now emerging in the Democratic primary for this office. I do not want to be the one who stands in the way of the greater diversity we need in politics.”
The race currently has two other candidates: Collier, the Houston accountant who came within 5 percentage points of unseating Patrick in 2018, is trying again; and state Rep. Michelle Beckley, a Carrollton Democrat, launched her campaign last month.
Carla Brailey, the vice chair of the Texas Democratic Party, has also said she’s considering a run — and hinted Tuesday on Facebook that “an important announcement is coming soon.”
Dowd’s departure also comes just a few weeks after campaign finance reports showed he raised $373,000 in the first few weeks of his run — while Collier, who formed an exploratory committee for the post in April, had secured $1.3 million by that time.
Dowd said the end of his campaign will not mark the end of his political career, and he will “continue to speak out on democracy and help elect servant leaders with common sense and common decency who believe in the common good, up and down the ballot, in Texas and across the nation.”
He plans to convert his campaign committee to a general committee that will support candidates with similar views.