Some takeaways from the primary races
Texas’ closely watched primary election saw several of the state’s best-known officials wallop their challengers, led by Gov. Greg Abbott’s decisive win over his seven Republican opponents.
Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and U.S. Rep. Dan Crenshaw of Houston also scored blowout wins in their GOP primaries, as did Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo and former congressman Beto
O’Rourke of El Paso on the Democratic side. O’Rourke will take on Abbott in November.
While Tuesday night proved favorable for most incumbents, Attorney General Ken Paxton was perhaps the most notable exception.
Though he comfortably led his three Republican opponents, Paxton failed to win a majority of the total votes, putting him in a May 24 runoff against Land Commissioner George P. Bush, the second-place finisher.
A glance farther down the ballot, however, reveals a number of less-apparent trends and insights into the state of Texas politics ahead of a pivotal midterm election.
Here are a few of the takeaways from an eventful primary election in Texas.
A PAC that underperformed
Tuesday’s Republican statehouse primaries saw the return of a right-wing megadonor duo — Midland oilman Tim Dunn and Cisco fracking billionaire Farris Wilks — known for their efforts to unseat Republican lawmakers they consider insufficiently conservative. The main benefactors behind the defunct Empower Texans political action committee, Dunn and Wilks put $4.6 million during this cycle behind a reincarnated version, called Defend Texas Liberty PAC.
The committee, run by former state Rep. Jonathan Stickland, spent the bulk of its funds to support former state Sen. Don Huffines, a far-right candidate, in his unsuccessful quest to de
feat Abbott in the GOP primary. But the group also dropped hundreds of thousands of dollars to target 19 Republicans in the Texas House, pitting it directly against House Speaker Dade Phelan, a more moderate figure by Texas politics standards who backed each of the incumbents.
According to unofficial returns, 16 of the targeted members won their primaries outright, while three — Reps. Kyle Kacal of College Station, Stephanie Klick of Fort Worth and Glenn Rogers of Graford — were forced into runoffs.
At least a handful of races were seen as major long shots for Defend Texas Liberty, which nonetheless ran attack ads against several incumbents facing littleknown and underfunded challengers.
One target, Rep. Mike Schofield of Katy, won more than 90 percent against an opponent who did not spend a single dime on the race.
But Phelan was also the top donor to several Republicans in closely watched races who went on to win their primaries outright, including Houston-area Reps. Ernest Bailes and Lacey Hull.
In a statement Wednesday, the speaker cast the outcome as a repudiation of the hard-line groups, without mentioning any by name.
“My team and I have been hard at work this election cycle, raising millions of dollars and traveling across the state to support Texas House Republicans and grow our majority in the chamber,” said Phelan, a Beaumont Republican. “That hard work has paid off, despite the efforts of some out-of-touch groups that have spent millions in election after election — and still don’t have much to show for it.”
Outspent, advancing
Numerous candidates exceeded expectations Tuesday by winning or making runoffs despite being vastly outspent by their opponents.
In one particularly notable case, mental health counselor Sandra Grace Martinez finished atop the four-candidate field in the Democratic primary for land commissioner despite spending roughly $2,000 on her campaign for the statewide office.
Martinez’s opponent in the runoff, conservationist Jay Kleberg, reported spending $679,000 during the first round of the primary campaign.
Along similar lines, social worker Vanesia Johnson found herself in a runoff for the Democratic nomination in a state House district covering Fort Bend County despite spending less than $6,000 during the primary — less than any of her three primary opponents.
Conversely, some topspending candidates were defeated Tuesday. Galveston physician Abel Longoria
outspent his three opponents in the Republican primary for House District 23 yet finished in third place, trailing a candidate whom he outspent roughly 3-to-1.
And in the Republican attorney general primary, top fundraiser Eva Guzman, a former Texas Supreme Court justice, also came up shy of making the runoff. Paxton and Bush both went after Guzman in attack ads.
Wins for McCarthy
Republican combat veterans Wesley Hunt and Morgan Luttrell won their crowded Houston-area primary races, defeating hardline conservative opponents who had attempted to paint them as pawns of House Republican leadership.
The charge stemmed from House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy’s support for the two candidates, which included financial
backing through a super PAC affiliated with the House GOP leadership. During the closing weeks of the primary, the committee mounted an aggressive spending campaign to lift Luttrell over his main rival, political operative Christian Collins, who had also been boosted by a flood of outside spending — including from a super PAC aligned with the right-wing House Freedom Caucus.
Hunt and Luttrell are running in districts drawn to heavily favor Republicans, making them all but certain to win in November.
The likely addition of two new allies is seen as a boon for McCarthy, a California Republican who is aiming to become speaker if his party wins back control of the lower chamber in November.
A third McCarthy-supported candidate, Monica De La Cruz, also won her primary in the South Texasbased 15th Congressional District, though she faces a far more competitive race in November.
McCarthy’s lone black eye came in Texas’ 3rd Congressional District, where Rep. Van Taylor, R-Plano, was forced into a runoff against former Collin County Judge Keith Self. Despite receiving more than $200,000 in support from the McCarthy-affiliated super PAC, on top of his own overwhelming fundraising advantage, Taylor fell just shy of clearing the 50 percent threshold needed to avoid a runoff.
On Wednesday, Taylor abruptly ended his re-election campaign after admitting to an extramarital affair.
The development means that Self, who has vowed not to support McCarthy for speaker, will likely be elected to Taylor’s seat in Congress.
Self had attacked Taylor for voting to establish a commission to investigate the events of Jan. 6, 2021 at the U.S. Capitol.
More conservative
Patrick, who presides over the Texas Senate, threw his support behind four Republican candidates running in the primary to succeed departing senators.
Patrick also backed a fifth candidate running for a Fort Worth-area seat that is held by a Democrat but was redrawn last year during redistricting to heavily favor Republicans.
As was largely expected, four of Patrick’s preferred candidates won their primaries outright, while a fifth, former state Sen. Pete Flores, was headed to a runoff after finishing first in his primary.
All five candidates are running in Senate districts drawn to favor Republicans.
If things go according to Patrick’s plan, the Senate would gain at least three new members next year who are unmistakably more conservative than their would-be successors. Two of them — state Rep. Mayes Middleton and Midland oilman Kevin Sparks — won their primaries Tuesday and do not have Democratic opponents, virtually ensuring their election to the chamber.
With full control over committee assignments and the flow of legislation, the 71-year-old Patrick already maintains a firm grip on the 31-member Senate. Adding at least four freshfaced political allies would likely continue the chamber’s rightward shift under his watch. The Legislature last year banned abortions after six weeks, targeted transgender athletes and passed new voting restrictions that critics said were aimed at suppressing the vote of people of color.
“This will most definitely be the most conservative Texas Senate in recent history,” Republican political consultant Luke Macias tweeted Tuesday night.