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House Republicans Setting New Mark
for Primary Tilts with Paxton on Prowl
Capitol Inside
November 21, 2023
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Texas House GOP
Incumbent
Losses: 11
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A record number of Texas House Republicans are facing primary opposition in 2024 with the lion's share as the prey in districts where Attorney General Ken Paxton is trying to take them out as payback for the failed attempt to impeach him this year.
The Capitol Inside list of Texas Races to Watch involving GOP incumbents in the west wing has been shrinking in the past week - with State Rep. Andrew Murr of Junction as the highest-profile dropout after announcing on Monday that he will not seek re-electon in House District 53. Murr had been ranked second to only Speaker Dade Phelan on a list that currently features 35 House Republicans who backed Paxton's impeachment and two who voted against it in the spring.
Phelan and Murr had been Paxton's top two targets before the later yanked the plug on a re-election campaign as the first apparent casualty from the disaster that he helped create with the first attempted impeachment of a statewide official in Texas in more than 100 years.
State Rep. Jared Patterson - a Frisco Republican in the primary fight that's currently rated sixth here - said last week that he was gearing for a bid for the Texas Senate in an open race. Governor Greg Abbott identified Patterson on Monday as one of several House Republicans who won't be back in the lower chamber after the vote in 2024. But Patterson has been uncharacteristically silent on a potential Senate District 30 bid for five days since an X post on the subject.
Patterson emerged in the volcanic fallout from the failed impeachment as the House leadership team's most aggressive enforcer and the speaker's most outspoken defender and fan. With Murr's unforeseen retirement in the works, the battle for the GOP nomination in House District 106 has ascended to the third spot on the Republican incumbent rankings for contested first-round contests. HD 106 would be shifted to a separate list of open races to watch if Patterson decides to seek the promotion to the Senate.
Thirty-five House Republicans who voted to strip the state lawyer's post from Paxton have drawn primary opponents in the races that are ranked in the top 35. The two who opposed the impeachment - State Reps. Travis Clardy of Nacogdoches and John Smithee of Amarillo - are listed in the last two spots as incumbents who appear to be shoo-ins after landing enthusiastic endorsements from Paxton late last week.
Paxton is backing Clardy even though he was one of 21 House Republicans who teamed up with Democrats to kill a school vouchers bill on the floor on Friday night. Clardy and the other GOP members who voted for an amendment that removed education savings accounts from a school funding plan showed no signs of concerns about Abbott coming after them in the primary like he'd been threatening to do if they did not fall in line on ESAs.
A dozen House Republicans who opposed vouchers are running in contested primaries on the watch list. Only two - State Reps. Glenn Rogers of Graford and Ernest Bailes of Shepherd - are ranked in the top 20s major targets on the Paxton revenge tour.
Four of the eight highest-ranked GOP representatives - State Reps. Jeff Leach of Allen, David Spiller of Jacksboro, Briscoe Cain of Deer Park and Morgan Meyer of Dallas - served in the group of House managers who Phelan selected to represent the House in the Senate impeachment trial. But Murr and Leach were the only members of the group with speaking parts in the trial. Paxton will coming for those who don't quit without a fight like Murr is doing nonetheless.
Paxton is supporting challengers in the top 24 House races to watch with incumbent Republicans if he hasn't fielded more who will surface in the next two weeks before the filing deadline for the 2024. The current count of House Republicans with primary opponents so far would shatter the all-time mark if it holds for the number of west wing incumbents with first-round fights in 20 years of GOP rule in Austin.
Thirty-two Republicans faced primary foes in 2012 after redistricting and again in 2016 when conservatives from outside the chamber made their first concerted push. The GOP primary ballot featured 29 contests that pit House Republicans against challengers in 2022. Only 12 GOP representatives faced primary opponents in the first election in the covid pandemic in 2020.
Twenty-four House Republicans had contested primaries in 2018 after 23 faced challengers in round one in 2014.
more to come ... |
