Stroud is best pick for GOP primary runoff
He brings a reasonable approach to hot-button issues.
Republicans looking for a strong candidate to challenge U.S. Rep. Lizzie Fletcher, the Houston Democrat seeking her third term, have two good choices in the May 24 runoff.
Johnny Teague, 59, the Baptist preacher and rancher, earned 43 percent of the vote in the March 1 primary, the best showing among seven candidates. He’s an experienced candidate, a strong conservative, and has a welcome ability to talk about hotly debated policy preferences in a way that calms, rather than excites, passions. Teague’s experience as senior pastor at Houston’s Church at the Cross — “come as you are” is a tag line — includes working to aid refugee families and battling human trafficking.
Even so, we continue to believe his opponent, Tim Stroud, is the better choice for Republicans looking for the best chance at winning in November.
A former combat medic for the U.S. Army with tours of duty in Kosovo and Iraq, Stroud offered what we’ve called “conservative but reasonable takes on pressing issues” — from climate change to the future of the energy industry. Stroud strongly supports oil and gas, for instance, but also wants to see continued investments in renewable fuels. Rather than eliminate subsidies for clean energy, he wants to insist that help for the industry is fairly spread out among green and fossil fuels.
Stroud, 50, believes Houston — and Texas as a whole — can become a hub for innovative responses to climate change. The talent already employed in the oil and gas industry could be a rich source of human capital necessary to develop new solutions for a warming planet that will require ever more energy in years to come. “There are brilliant minds all over the world working on the energy transition,” he told us in February. “We need to attract them to the United States and Texas. Let’s use those minds right here.”
Both candidates offer voters a reliably conservative approach to the nation’s challenges. We believe Stroud stands out, however, due to the level of thinking he has put into the solving them. Stroud’s commitment to both protect workers in Houston’s primary industry and help the region chart a new course persuades us that he deserves a spot on the November ballot.
We urge those voting in the Republican primary runoff to back Stroud.