Houston Chronicle

Bloomberg sends $2 million to help flip Texas House

- By Jeremy Wallace

will focus its energy in 2020.

In the case of Texas, the group is trying to help flip the Texas House from Republican to Democratic control. Republican­s have watched their majority in the Texas House shrink to just nine seats and Democrats are convinced they have a shot of winning enough seats in 2020. In 2018, Democrats flipped 12 seats held by Republican­s.

"I centered my campaign for

Bloomberg spent more than $500 million of his own money on his campaign for the White House. He skipped the traditiona­l early-voting states and instead focused on Super Tuesday states like Texas. But it didn’t pay off as former Vice President Joe Biden carried Texas by 5 percentage points over U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders. Bloomberg won 14 percent of the vote and finished in third place. candidate Eliz Markowitz in Fort Bend to help the Democrat in her failed bid to win a special election in January. Markowitz lost the special election but is set to challenge Republican Gary Gates in a rematch in November.

During a campaign stop in Houston in February, Bloomberg pointed to three Harris County seats he thinks Democrats can flip if they can build on gains made in the 2018 midterm elections. president around the battlegrou­nd states our party needs to win in November, and I'm glad to help Swing Left continue the work of organizing voters in those states," Bloomberg said.

Democrats have not controlled the Texas House since 2001.

Texas was a big focus of Bloomberg’s campaign. He visited Houston frequently, won the endorsemen­t of Mayor Sylvester Turner and campaigned with State House

Former Democratic presidenti­al candidate Mike Bloomberg failed in his bid for the White House, but he is still looking to make an impact on Texas politics.

Bloomberg announced Tuesday he is sending $2 million to a Democratic-leaning group called Swing Left, which has targeted Texas as one of 12 states where it

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