You could make the case that Donald Trump was the most valuable player in almost every single competitive race that Republicans won in Texas in the general election this month. But that doesn't mean that some down-ballot wins were harder to secure for the GOP than others in the Lone Star State in 2024.
Corpus Christi Republican Adam Hinojosa faced the toughest test of all for a Republican in a real fight with a Democrat en route to a victory over State Senator Morgan LaMantia of Brownsville in a South Texas district that went red for the first time this fall.
Denise Villalobos - a Corpus Christi resident as well - had the second most imposing challenge for a down-ballot Texas Republican in a competitive race without an incumbent before she flipped a state House seat that a Democrat represented for all but two of the past 22 years.
Hinojosa and Villalobos won as underdogs on paper in districts that overlap in Nueces County where they both gave the other a significant boost. Hinojosa beat LaMantia in Senate District 27 in one of the few races on the Texas ballot with a thriller ending at the finish line. Villalobos seized the Democrats' only seat in the Corpus Christi area with a surprisingly easy victory over former House Democrat Solomon Ortiz Jr. in House District 34.
Villalobos and Hinojosa are the choices for best challenger campaign and best open race in the Capitol Inside Best of the Texas General Election assessment for 2024. The pair of Republicans from the coastal city joined U.S. Senator Ted Cruz and Democratic State Rep. Eddie Morales Jr. of Eagle Pass on the all-star team for the November vote in the nation's second largest state. Morales and Cruz were named this week as the most valuable players on the honor squad for the general election here. The pair of co-MVPs shared best incumbent campaign laurels in Texas for the fall as well.
Hinojosa lost to LaMantia by less than half of a percentage point in 2022 in an open race in SD 27, which Republicans in Austin designed the year before for the GOP to take over. The challenger found himself at a massive disadvantage in fundraising in a fight with an incumbent who had millions of dollars in family wealth to spend on her first re-election bid. But Hinojosa had Trump to mitigate the money gap and then some - and the Republican performed well enough to get himself in position to ride a red wave that swept into the state's deepest southern reaches when the president-elect turned LaMantia's two strongest counties from blue to red in a historic development.
Trump flipped longtime Democratic strongholds like Cameron and Hidalgo counties for the GOP when he fared 20 points better in both places than he did against Joe Biden four years ago. LaMantia won Cameron and Hidalgo by 5 points less on average than she did in 2022. But the SD 27 vote broke along regional lines into a turf fight between the district's north and south ends. Hinojosa prevailed in all five counties north of the Rio Grande Valley - racking up 63 percent of the Nueces County vote in SD 27 and 64 percent in San Patricio County to take the rematch.
Villalobos appeared to face even longer odds than the Senate contender in a bid for a House seat that Democratic State Rep. Abel Herrero of Corpus Christi captured initially 20 years ago and opted not to seek again in 2024. Herrero fell victim to a Republican tidal wave in 2010 before reclaiming the HD 34 seat in a rematch with a GOP foe two years later. Herrero beat a GOP challenger by 15 points in 2022 despite alterations in redistricting that would make the district more Republican.
Ortiz gave the Democrats a familiar name as the son of a former longtime congressman. Ortiz appeared to be the betting favorite based on the outgoing incumbent's winning margin two years ago. But that proved to be an
illusion when Villalobos won the HD 34 contest by almost 11 points at the polls this month. Villalobos raised twice as much as the Democrat thanks to hundreds of thousands that came courtesy of Governor Greg Abbott and the Associated Republicans of Texas for the most part in the final two months of the race.
Abbott campaigned for Villalobos and Hinojosa at an event in the CC-area on the eve of the November vote.
The GOP picked up two seats in the Legislature's lower chamber in South Texas including a district that Uvalde's Don McLaughlin captured in a district on the border between the RGV and Del Rio. The Republicans successfully defended every House seat in districts where Democrats had some shot to win. The major parties broke even on the congressional battlefield in the Lone Star State.
Coming this week: Best of the Texas General Election final all-star team selection ...
