Hopefuls in bid for rep’s seat embrace Trump
District 22’s GOP race to succeed Olson is full of zeal for the president
The race for U.S. Rep. Pete Olson’s seat did not take long to escalate into a political free-for-all.
Less than two weeks after the Sugar Land Republican announced last July that he would not seek a seventh term, the GOP primary had its first candidate. By the filing deadline four months later, the Republican field contained a bustling mix of 15 conservatives from an array of backgrounds and locations.
The two major constants: Every candidate claims impeccable conservative bona fides and each touts steadfast support for President Donald Trump. With little room to waver on either point, the Republicans are trying to stand out from the pack by emphasizing their distinct backgrounds, convincing voters they are best suited to keep the seat in GOP hands and, in some cases, rebuking primary foes for living outside the district.
“When it’s that crowded of a field, you’ve got to have the resources to cut through the noise, and if you don’t have the resources, you have to have something that makes you stand out,” said Ben McPhaul, a Houston Republican strategist who is not involved in the primary. “It’s an incredibly uphill battle for the people that don’t have the money or some sort of very unique strategy to grab the attention of voters.”
Though every major candidate in the primary is conveying public support for Trump, some are doing so more enthusiastically than others. Perhaps the most passionate Trump advocate is Kathaleen Wall, a tech startup investor and GOP donor who spent $6.2 million of her own money running in a different district last cycle and failed to make the primary runoff.
Wall again is spending amply and running TV ads prominently featuring the president.
“Kathaleen Wall is the Wall who will help Donald Trump build a wall and protect our country’s sovereignty,” a smooth-voiced narrator reads in one recent spot. “Like Donald Trump, Kathaleen Wall is a successful conservative businessperson who wants to make America great again.”
Not everyone is making Trump a center point of their campaign. Marine veteran Jon Camarillo said Trump is “not an essential part of my talking points, because as a leader in Congress I must be able to stand on my own ideas, merits, and vision.”
Former Brazoria County Judge Greg Hill said he supports the president for deregulating the economy, appointing conservative judges and creating jobs, despite disagreeing with some of the president’s “tones and tactics and his mannerisms.”
That is about as far as anyone is willing to go, with Republican primary voters showing little tolerance for candidates who defy Trump.
“Trump’s support among Republican primary voters is anywhere between 85 and 95 percent, depending on which poll you look at, so there just isn’t enough margin among nonTrump-supporting Republican primary voters,” Texas Republican strategist Matt Mackowiak said. “You can differ on an issue here or there, but for the most part, you need to be supportive.”
Bush backs Trump
Where Trump’s shadow may play the biggest role is the candidacy of Pierce Bush, a nonprofit executive whose family famously has clashed with the president. Bush’s uncle Jeb frequently butted heads with Trump during the 2016 presidential primary, and his grandfather, former President George H.W. Bush, called Trump a “blowhard” and voted for Hillary Clinton.
Pierce Bush is taking the opposite approach in his congressional bid, going all-in for Trump, promising to partner with him on economic policy and slamming congressional Democrats last month for impeaching the president.
“Like many normal families in this country, mine has their disagreement on politics,” Bush said. “While we agree on a lot, we do not agree on everything, and that’s perfectly fine to have a healthy discussion about important issues. But this election isn’t about my family.”
Despite his professed support for the president, some of Bush’s opponents are questioning whether the sentiment is sincere. The same day he filed for Congress, the Daily Caller, a conservative news site, published a story showing a photo of Bush participating in a January 2017 march against Trump’s executive order that blocked citizens of seven Muslim-majority countries from entering the United States.
Asked if he still feels the same way about the ban, Bush said he believes the U.S. “should be a welcoming nation that can also be focused on our security by vetting people who want to come here.” Ultimately, Bush said, “I support the president’s responsibility to protect our country.”
Fort Bend County Sheriff Troy Nehls, a longtime border hawk, is running a campaign styled in some ways after Trump, making border security a top issue and embracing his own tendency to make blunt or controversial comments that sometimes garner unwanted media attention.
In 2017, Nehls made national news — and drew more than a few rebukes — when he threatened on Facebook to bring disorderly conduct charges against the driver of a truck displaying a profane anti-Trump message on its rear window. That prompted the driver to add a correspondingly profane anti-Nehls sticker to the truck.
“I think all Texans value straight talk,” Nehls said. “For far too long, we’ve suffered from smooth-talking politicians who promise the world during election time, only to break those promises once re-elected. I’m running for Congress to change that and deliver on my promises like I have as sheriff.”
Democrats eye GOP primary
Democrats, meanwhile, are watching the primary unfold in the hopes that their Republican counterparts continue to warmly embrace Trump.
There are four Democrats seeking the District 22 nomination: 2018 nominee Sri Kulkarni, attorney Nyanza Moore, former Pearland City Councilman Derrick Reed and retired electrician Carmine Petrillo III.
Drawn to comfortably elect a Republican, the district saw its narrowest margins yet in 2018, when Olson beat Kulkarni by about 5 percentage points. Trump won the district by 8 points, with 52 percent of the vote.
Dallas Jones, a Houston-based Democratic strategist, said the eventual Republican nominee may struggle to moderate their conservative primary message for the general electorate, with many first-time antiTrump voters expected to turn out.
“I think that it’s a dual problem for them,” Jones said. “They have to be conservative enough to get out of the primary, yet somehow find a way to tone that down for a district that almost turned blue in the last election.”
Some Republican candidates argue that Democrats run a similar risk of lurching too far to the left. And they say Trump’s economic record will play well in a district that still has a natural conservative lean.
Mackowiak said the race likely will be close, but he argued that the last cycle presented more favorable conditions for Democrats than 2020 will.
“If they were going to win that district, the single best time to do it was 2018, given the advantages they had: wind at their back, Trump not in a strong position politically, straight-ticket voting, the Beto (O’Rourke) wave of new voters,” he said. “All those things conspired, and none of those effects are going to be in place in 2020.”
Some of the Republican candidates are talking in explicit terms about their plans to appeal to moderate voters, including Camarillo, who said he plans to vote for Trump like he did in 2016 but also wants to seek support from the president’s critics.
“In a general election, I will speak to both Republicans and Democrats,” said Camarillo, who is touting his foreign policy background. “My focus on keeping America safe is a bipartisan issue that all residents of CD-22 can get behind.”