GOP officials choose Fallon for TX-04 ballot
WASHINGTON — State Sen. Pat Fallon was elected Saturday afternoon by 145 Republican officials from Northeast Texas to replace Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe as the GOP nominee on the ballot for Texas’ 4th Congressional District, likely sending the Prosper Republican to Washington as the district’s next representative.
Fallon, who represents District 30 in the Texas Senate, beat out 17 other candidates with 82 votes from the 144 voting GOP county and precinct chairs who live in the district, needing only one round to secure a majority. The chairs gathered Saturday afternoon at the Hopkins County Civic Center in Sulphur Springs for over three hours to vote in the unusual election.
“This is a unique district, this is a district rich in history, this is a district of giants,” Fallon told the crowd after being declared the winner. “I see several hundred giants in this room. I am a better person for the experience of the last 90 days. I didn’t get 82 votes. I had 82 friends who supported me, and I am humbled.”
Fallon will face Democratic nominee Russell Foster in November,
but the conservative will be heavily favored running in a district where Ratcliffe received more than three-quarters of the vote in 2018 and nearly 90 percent of the vote in 2016.
“We and us, now from this day forward, in the 4th Congressional District are united to beat the socialists, because everything that our ancestors built is under threat,” Fallon said.
The broad field of candidates had several household names, like Ratcliffe’s former district chief of staff Jason Ross, and local leaders, like Atlanta Mayor Travis Ransom and Rockwall City Council member Trace Johannesen. Outsiders also made strong pushes for the seat, including Fallon, who was endorsed by Republican U.S.Sen. Ted Cruz and Aaron Harris, a conservative activist and the chief of staff for U.S. Rep. Lance Gooden, a Republican who represents the neighboring 5th Congressional District. Harris was endorsed by Young Conservatives of Texas and Grassroots America.
In a final election day push, Cruz joined Fallon in person to make one last appeal to the chairs.
“Ted Cruz endorsed me, and he came up here today because he can’t do it alone,” Fallon said during his introductory speech to the chairs before voting began. “He needs reinforcements in D.C., and he wants me by his side.”
Harris held a simultaneous event with his own high-profile supporters, including former state Sen. Don Huffines and conservative activist and former Colleyville City Council member Chris Putnam.
Many of the candidates played up their local ties, providing a contrast to outsiders like Fallon and Harris.
“Many of you know me, and I know many of you,” Ross told the chairs. “There are a lot of people running in this race. Some of them are ready, others are not. Some of them are from here, others are not. I have lived 10,000 days of my life in this district.”
Ratcliffe’s seat would normally be filled by a special election, but with the November election so close to Ratcliffe’s decision in May to join the Trump administration and forfeit his seat and candidacy, there wouldn’t be time to hold such an election and subsequent runoff election. Under Texas law, the chairman of the Texas GOP can convene a “Congressional District Executive Committee” of the district’s precinct and county chairs to elect a replacement on the ballot, and the seat remains vacant until the winner of the general election is sworn in with the new session of Congress in January.
This type of election isn’t uncommon in Texas — it’s even being employed this month to replace the Democratic candidate on the ballot for Travis County judge — but there are no recent examples of a federal lawmaker essentially being elected in this fashion.
The chairs gathered inside the civic center were given a lot of control over the process, approving their own rules for the voting process that were proposed by a rules committee.
Candidates needed to be nominated by two of the chairs in order to be considered in the first round of voting. Only 12 candidates cleared that bar: Harris, Ross, Ransom, Johannesen, Fallon, Zach Rateliff of Texarkana,
Rodney Adams of Hunt County, retired Grayson County airline pilot Steve Gorman, Rockwall Mayor Jim Pruitt, Texarkana businessman Bob Worthen, Rockwall attorney Casey Campbell and Robert West, a Delta County precinct chair and conservative activist.
Fallon settled the election after just one round of voting, preventing a runoff by receiving a majority.
Ross came in second place with 34 votes, followed by Ransom with 16 votes. All other nominated candidates received just a handful of votes each.
As an outsider to the district, Fallon emphasized unity as he turns his attention to the November general election.
The conservative has not reported any of his campaign expenditures to the Federal Election Commission, which is not required until a candidate spends or raises more than $5,000.
“We need to thrash socialists in November,” he said. “We need to make sure that we run the score up in CD-4 so we can help President Trump carry this state and save our country. And we only have a few months left to do that. As hard as you’ve seen me work in the last three months, you ain’t seen nothing yet.”