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| @ShelleyLutherTX lands endorsement from Texans United for a Conservative Majority as PAC that Tim Dunn and Farris Wilks create for 2024 primary vote |
Shelley Luther Claims Challenger Honors
after Beating Incumbent with Abbott Pass
Capitol Inside
March 9, 2024
Shelley Luther didn't need Governor Greg Abbott's donor money or pom poms to beat a Texas House Republican in Tuesday's primary election like five other GOP challengers who he bankrolled in a chest-beating power grab designed to buy a school vouchers bill that he failed to pass in multiple attempts last year.
Barring an unforeseen upset by a Democrat in a House district that Abbott carried two years ago with 79 percent of the vote, Luther will join a very exclusive group of conservative Republican representatives who the governor doesn't own when she takes the oath next year. Luther unseated State Rep. Reggie Smith of Sherman in a rematch on Tuesday with more than 53 percent of the vote.
Luther gets the nod here for best performance by a challenger in the Capitol Inside Best of the Texas Primary Election competition. But Luther won the nomination in House District 62 the old fashion way in one very significant respect. Unlike the challengers who Abbott supported, she earned it.
Luther got the bug for politics after going to jail in Dallas County for keeping her beauty shop in Dallas open in the early stages of the covid pandemic in defiance of Abbott's emergency orders. But she had to struggle before she could win - and she did. Luther had an auspicious debut in the campaign arena when she led then-House Republican Drew Springer in the first round of a special Texas Senate election in late 2020 when her novel status as a celebrity pandemic protester was still fresh.
Luther had cut Abbott up for months with claims that he governed at the start of covid like a tyrant - and he dropped $275,000 on the Springer campaign in overtime in a move that was the governor's way of telling her to go back to cutting hair and nails. Springer won the runoff with more than 56 percent.
Luther bounced back a year later when she challenged Smith initially in HD 62 - a district with a couple of counties on the Oklahoma border and two more in a narrow swath of northeast Texas. Smith sailed to a primary win against Luther in 2022 with almost 59 percent of the vote. That would have been the last straw with most contenders. And then she had a brain aneurysm that showed signs of a possible stroke in the spring of 2023.
After a nightmare scare before a full recovery, Luther had the guts, grit and resiliency to return to the plate just one swing away from a third strike that could end the dream for good. But Luther had to overcome a major break that Smith received when Abbott gave him a pass despite a vote against school choice by declining to rally behind the challenger like he did with record largess in other target races on behalf of pro-voucher conservatives who were taking aim at Republicans who snubbed his plan in special session last fall.
Smith dodged a bazooka - and the bad blood that Abbott and Luther have shared since she burst in the public domain cost her comeback campaign a half-million dollars or more and pep rally photo ops with the governor for postings on X. But Abbott was too thin-skinned to bury the hatchet with Luther so he could slap a target on the incumbent's back. So the governor gambled that Smith could beat Luther again if he simply stayed out of HB 62.
So Abbott lost an ally and gained an enemy with his manuevering on vouchers. Luther derailed Abbott's attempt to be a safe and cautious leader in the worst health crisis since the Spanish flu. She will have the freedom to mess with him on a regular basis now unless he can buy her off between now and January.
Mitch Little of Lewisville and Matt Morgan of Richmond were viable contenders for the best challenger honors after ousting a pair of Republicans who the governor supported in State Reps. Kronda Thimesch and Jacey Jetton respectively. Little, who's a lawyer, was a key member of Paxton's winning defense team in a Texas Senate impeachment trial that the House forced on the upper chamber. Morgan came within a hair of beating Jetton in an open race in 2020 when he garnered 49.7 percent of the vote in a primary election that had been delayed by the virus debut.
The governor's five victorious challengers could be hall of fame level legislators by the time they're done. But they will all begin careers as Abbott rubber stamps who should be smart enough to know that he will turn against them in a blink if they disobey.
Luther will enter the House without Abbott yanking strings - and that's another word for freedom in a House that he will expect to control without a whisper of dissent from the interchangeable challengers he gets elected. Attorney General Ken Paxton can share in some of the credit for Luther's win - having appeared at a rally for her in Van Alstyne a week or so before the primary vote. Luther touted endorsements from Agriculture Commissioner and U.S. Senator Ted Cruz as well.
But Luther - who faces Democrat Tiffany Drake in the general election in the heavily Republican HD 62 - deserves the lion's share of accolades for her success. And she won despite a sizeable fundraising disadvantage in a district where she and Smith rounded up $550,000 and $535,000 respectively for the rematch.
The Best of the Texas Primary Election will be rolled out in single installments as per tradition here in recent election years. |
