San Antonio Express-News (Sunday)
It’s looking likely Larson is leaving his seat
It’s looking increasingly likely that Lyle Larson will not seek a seventh term in Texas House District 122. As a result, the GOP primary race for his North Bexar County seat could soon get mighty crowded.
Larson isn’t publicly revealing anything about his plans, but the circumstantial evidence is pretty strong.
Consider the fact that up until a week ago, Jeff Webster, the former San Antonio councilman, planned to run for Larson’s seat. Webster said Friday he had lined up a campaign treasurer, a finance chair and support from elected officials and members of the business community.
Most importantly, Webster had the blessing of the current occupant of the District 122 seat.
Larson and Webster have been friends for 30 years. Larson was in Webster’s wedding. When Larson was term-limited out of his City Council seat in 1995, he threw his support behind Webster, a crucial boost that helped Webster take the election.
It’s inconceivable that Webster would have begun building a campaign for Larson’s seat unless he was confident that Larson planned to step aside.
“I had committed that I was going to run,” Webster said. “Then I had the opportunity to go to a family friend’s funeral on Thursday and over the weekend I was visiting with friends and family at the lake, and it just kind of dawned on me that the most important thing to me is I’m in a good spot in life, enjoying my friends and family.
“I had to call Lyle on Sunday night and say, ‘I’ve changed my mind. I’m out.’ ”
For much of this year’s long and acrimonious legislative session, Larson has sounded like someone thoroughly fed up with partisan gamesmanship and political pandering.
He has consistently blasted his fellow Republicans for giving short shrift to the state’s most pressing problems — the COVID-19 pandemic and the state’s dysfunctional power grid — while obsessing on culture-war fodder: banning the teaching of critical race theory, preventing transgender athletes from competing in school sports, restricting voter access and blocking local entities from imposing mask mandates to slow the spread of the virus.
In a Thursday op-ed that ran in the San Antonio Report, Larson championed his friend and fellow disaffected Republican, former Texas House Speaker Joe Straus, as “the leader our state needs,” either in the position of governor or lieutenant governor.
Larson has directed much of his ire at the state’s ultimate culture warrior, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, who he has described as a “control freak” with an “insatiable desire for power.”
In a Friday tweet, Larson wrote, “Texas leadership has taken us back 100 years in just 8 months. Trying to make it harder to vote, censorship of social media and burning books they don’t agree with. No telling how much more damage they will do if they are left in charge.”
That sounds like someone who has emotionally cut the cord with the Republican Party and is thinking like a political independent. It also lends credence to the local scuttlebutt that Larson is pondering an independent challenge to Patrick.
“I’m not going to put words in (Larson’s) mouth,” Webster said. “We all know his frustration with Austin. He’s deeply concerned about who gets this (District 122) seat. That’s why he was very supportive of me taking the opportunity to pursue that.
“I know there’s a plethora of people hoping he doesn’t run (for re-election). They’d like to jump in that seat.”
That plethora could include former Bexar County District Attorney Nico LaHood, who said last week that he is giving “prayerful consideration” to a Republican primary campaign in District 122. LaHood, a former Democrat, indicated that his decision wouldn’t be affected by what Larson chooses to do.
Another potential contender is Adam Blanchard, a leader in the Texas trucking industry, who is the co-founder and CEO of Double Diamond Transport and Tanager Logistics.
“Recently, there’s been some people in the community that have reached out to me about the possibility of running if Lyle doesn’t run,” Blanchard said. “I’ve been incredibly humbled by that. So, based on those calls, if Lyle doesn’t run, I’m seriously considering running.”
District 122, which includes North San Antonio as well as Hollywood Park, Shavano Park, Hill Country Village and Fair Oaks Ranch, is a prime piece of political real estate for local Republicans. It’s one of only two GOP-controlled Texas House districts among the 10 seats in the San Antonio delegation.
It rarely changes hands. Over the past 19 years, only two people have represented the district: Larson and Frank Corte.
At the moment, however, everything is in flux. We don’t know what the district map will look like after redistricting and we don’t know who will be on the ballot once that map is drawn.