On Wednesday, GOP Rep. Bill Flores announced that he would not seek a sixth term in Texas' solidly red 17th Congressional District.
Flores’ decision makes him the fifth Texas Republican who is leaving the House this cycle, and his decision came as a big surprise to local politicos: The Texas Tribune's Evan Smith tweeted that, while he'd long believed another two members of the state's congressional delegation might retire, Flores was not among those names. The Lone Star State's candidate filing deadline is in early December, so we still have three more months to see just how large the Texodus grows.
Flores is also the 14th Republican member of the House who has opted not to seek re-election this term; two more have resigned or will soon do so. By contrast, just four House Democrats have decided to leave the chamber so far, including California Rep. Susan Davis (see our CA-53 item). Flores' seat, which includes College Station, Waco, and a slice of the Austin suburbs, supported Donald Trump by a wide 56-39 margin, but Republican Sen. Ted Cruz defeated Beto O'Rourke here last year by a narrower 54-45 spread. This district should remain in Republican hands, but it's possible the trends here could give Democrats an opening.
In addition, Flores is now the third GOP House member elected during the 2010 red wave who is retiring (the two House Republicans who decided to resign, Pennsylvania's Tom Marino and Wisconsin's Sean Duffy, also were part of the class of 2010). That year, Flores, who led a natural gas company, decided to run for office for the first time against battle-tested Democratic Rep. Chet Edwards.
Edwards was one of the many Texas Democrats who was targeted for defeat in 2004 under the infamous DeLaymander, but he'd pulled off a miraculous 51-47 victory even as George W. Bush was carrying his seat by a brutal 70-30 margin. Four years later, Edwards beat underfunded Republican Rob Curnock 53-46 as John McCain was winning 67-32 here. Curnock tried again in 2010, but the self-funding Flores decisively outspent him to prevail in a runoff.
Flores earned some unwanted attention just before that runoff when the Texas Tribune reported that he'd voted in the 2008 Democratic primary for president. Flores insisted he was "casting his ballot against Barack Obama," though Flores refused to say if he'd voted for Hillary Clinton. However, the story didn't prevent Flores from beating Curnock by a convincing 64-36 margin.
Edwards ran an aggressive campaign to save his seat during what turned out to be a horrific year for his party. The incumbent attacked Flores for taking government bailout funds for his energy company, and accused the Republican of lying by claiming he'd voted for Curnock in 2008 when he actually hadn't voted at all in that election. Flores also ran into trouble when he told an interviewer that he didn't oppose raising the Social Security retirement age, only to say later that he'd misspoken because of a headache.
However, the GOP wave helped carry Flores to a lopsided 62-37 victory. Flores never again went through a competitive primary or general election, and despite his shaky voting record from 2008, he went on to become chair of the far-right Republican Study Committee.
