A San Antonio Democrat reaped a windfall of free advertising for a Texas House campaign when the Bexar County GOP sought on Tuesday to have her disqualified in a race against GOP State Rep. John Lujan based on the fact that she changed her name before she became a candidate.
The Alamo City Republicans didn't express any problems with the fact that the GOP has had its fair share of candidates who had different names before running for elected offices in the Lone Star State. Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick, whose last name was Goeb when he was growing up in Maryland, is the most prominent example.
Local Republican Chair Kris Coons announced the filing of a lawsuit to have Kristian Carranza removed from the general election ballot at a news conference this morning at the Bexar County Courthouse. The Bexar Republicans say that the Democratic challenger in House District 118 never used the surname Carranza before she moved into the area to run for the seat. She went by the name Kristian Thompson in the past.
"The Party will take every practical measure to ensure the law is upheld in this manner and that voters are fully aware the radical liberals are attempting to fool voters by co-opting a Hispanic name in this majority-Hispanic district," the Bexar GOP contended in a social media post on Monday.
The HD 118 population was 63 percent Hispanic when the 2020 census was taken. Lujan won the seat initially in a special election in 2016 before his ouster later that year by a Democrat. Lujan was crushed by a Democrat in the 2018 general election in a comeback bid before claiming the HD 118 seat again in late 2021. Lujan won a general election for the first time in 2022 when he beat a Democratic challenger by almost four points.
But Democrat Beto O'Rourke carried HD 118 by nearly two percentage points in the 2022 race for governor after President Joe Biden beat Donald Trump there in 2020 by almost three points. With Kamala Harris building a lead over Trump in independent polling on the presidential competition this fall, Lujan appears to be a substantial underdog in his re-election bid this fall.
Carranza said that she decided to use her mother's maiden name instead of an absentee father's surname. She portrayed the legal challenge as a desperation Hail Mary by Republicans trying to save an incumbent who can't win on his own.
"It’s a new low from the GOP to make this sick and desperate attack on me in a frivolous lawsuit," Carranza said in a post on X. "They’re scared extremists like John Lujan will lose."
The HD 118 bout is ranked number one on the Capitol Inside list of the Texas Races to Watch in 2024 as the seat that the Democrats have the best chance to flip on the House battlefield. Barring circumstances that are unforeseen, the Democrats could expect to have the inside track in HD 118 as long as they have a candidate in the race.
But the lawsuit is a testament to the Republicans' fear of Carranza as a Latina who is dramatically stronger on paper than the other Democrats who've defeated Lujan in recent years. Lujan may have little or no chance of beating her even if she'd filed to run as Kristian Thompson.
The SA Republicans in the meantime haven't said how they feel about Patrick and the other candidates who changed names before campaigns for public offices in Texas. GOP State Rep. Caroline Harris Davila of Round Rock is another example as a lawmaker whose last name was Harris when she won a House seat two years ago in her debut campaign. But she added Davila to the name that she has on the ballot thjis time around as her husband's surname.
Here's what Texas law says on the matter ...
A person may use any surname acquired by law or marriage.
(b) In combination with the surname, a candidate may use one or more of the following:
(1) a given name;
(2) a contraction or familiar form of a given name by which the candidate is known; or
(3) an initial of a given name.
