Still working my way around Texas, and trying to finish the series up before the end of Early Voting Friday (Feb 26th). Check out South, West, East, North, and DFW for the rest of the pack. I will try to get to the Houston Area before the polls close.
Five of the seven districts I’ll cover in this post touch Travis County. It’s home to the State Capitol, and is affectionately known as the blueberry in the tomato soup. During redistricting, Republicans did their best to dilute the voting strength of the most liberal and most densely-registered county.
CD-10
I have a long-running love/hate relationship with CD-10. I used to live there. I worked hard for Dan Grant when he ran (and sadly lost the primary race) for the seat in 2008. Republican Michael McCaul has held onto the seat during several redrawings of the map, and he’s unopposed in the primary this year. Tawana Cadien returns to take on McCaul again, but first she will face Scot Gallaher in the Democratic primary. I haven’t met Scot, but I know Tawana, and find her to be a credible candidate.
The district is a monster that has population centers at each end (Houston and Austin) with huge swaths of rural TX in between.
CD-17
Republican incumbent Bill Flores faces two primary challengers in Kaleb Simms and Ralph Patterson. Bill Flores took the seat after redistricting swamped former Rep Chet Edwards (D). The lone Democratic challenger is Bill Matta. This district takes a slice off the top of Travis County before spiking north.
CD-20
One of the districts that doesn’t touch Travis County is CD-20, based in Bexar County and home of Democratic incumbent Joaquin Castro. He is unopposed in the primary AND the general, so we can all enjoy one of the Castro brothers in the House while the other hangs out in the Cabinet.
CD-21
Republican Lamar Smith has held this seat since 1992. Despite being about as conservative as they come, he’s got three challengers in John Murphy, Todd Phelps, and Matt McCall. Phelps and McCall seem to be running to the right of Lamar Smith, which I didn’t think was even possible. Yet, there they are. John Murphy actually looks promising. A centrist-ish Republican. Those guys are rare anymore, and I can only hope he sees the light and becomes a Democrat in time.
On the Democratic side, Tejas Vakil and Tom Wakely are duking it out to take on (likely winner) Smith in the fall. The district runs from Austin to San Antonio before jutting out to the west. More conservative rural dilution of the liberal-dense population centers.
CD-25
Former Texas Secretary of State Roger Williams is the Republican Incumbent for CD-25. This district used to be the home territory of Lloyd Doggett before being redistricted to all-get-out. It’s a form of fajita strip districting that takes a swipe at Travis County’s liberal population and pairs it with the vastly more conservative rural sections to the north.
Kathi Thomas is the only Democratic challenger. As of the publication of this post, I can’t locate a website for Kathi. If you find one, please let me know.
CD-31
Democrat Mike Clark is unopposed in his efforts to take on Republican incumbent John Carter. This district just touches Travis County, and is one of the few that is actually both compact and contiguous. Weird, right? There is one primary challenge to John Carter in Mike Sweeney on the Republican party’s ballot. He’s running to the right of Carter, but I get the feeling that Carter’s going to make it through to November.
CD-35
Home of Lloyd Doggett, the GOP’s most-targeted Democratic incumbent. Susan Narvaiz returns to challenge Lloyd, and while we are never complacent (he’s been targeted just too many times for use to ever relax), this is likely a safe seat. No primary challengers on either side of the aisle makes this a bit of a yawn in the primary. Let’s check back in the fall, mmmkay?
But look at the shape of this thing, will ya?
And that’s it for Central Texas. Thanks for following along, folks. If you’re in Texas, remember that Friday, February 26th is the final day of early voting. Election day is Super Tuesday (March 1). Vote down-ballot!