Rural Republican Gives Texas AG
Cause to Crow on Way to the Exit

Capitol Inside
November 27, 2023

Attorney General Ken Paxton's camp moved swiftly to claim credit on Monday for the latest surprise departure from the Texas House with GOP State Rep. Kyle Kacal's sudden decision to cancel a re-election campaign that he'd vowed to run as an obligation to rural interests.

Kacal is the second House Republican to cancel a bid for a new term in 2024 as prime targets on the reckoning that Paxton is staging in the GOP primary election as payback for votes that were cast for his impeachment during the spring. Kacal, who's based in College Station, was one of 60 Republicans to vote for Paxton's impeachment on the final weekend of the regular legislative session in May.

State Rep. Andrew Murr of Junction announced a week ago that he would not be on the ballot again in House District 53 after a stint as the chief investigator and prosecutor in the attempt to force Paxton out of the office that he'd won three times at the polls. But Murr and Kacal had multiple targets on their backs after voting to impeach and to kill a school vouchers bill that has been Governor Greg Abbott prized proposal in 2023.

Abbott has threatened to exact revenge on school choice in the Republican primary election. All but one of the House Republicans who opposed education savings accounts in a vote on the floor on November 17 backed the AG's impeachment in the spring. Republican Dennis Bonnen, who served one term as speaker in 2019 and 2020, has been making calls in an effort to recruit challengers for some if not all of 21 GOP representatives who voted for an amendment that removed ESAs from a larger school funding plan.

Kacal had been 25th on the Capitol Inside list of Texas Races to Watch with incumbents from the GOP in the first-round vote next year. Murr was second only to Speaker Dade Phelan on the watch list for House Republicans as a consequence of his heavy involvement in the failed impeachment effort. Kacal hadn't announced the turnabout publicly by early afternoon today. But Kacal reportedly began telling colleagues that he won't be back for the next regular session in 2025 in House District 12 - which contains all of five rural counties in southeast Central Texas along with 30 percent of Kacal's home base of Brazos County.

Thirty-eight Republicans in the House had attracted primary opposition in terms of challengers who'd filed and others who've said they're running. Huntsville Republican Trey Wharton has filed to run in HD 12. But Wharton doesn't fit the profile of Paxton candidate on paper as school board member and director on the local hospital board. Bonnen supposedly has a contender lined up for the HD 12 race as well.

Kacal launched the re-election race on September 6 in a statement that showed no signs on potential wavering or insincerity. But Kacal and other House Republicans had been led to believe that Paxton's impeachment would be a foregone conclusion before his acquittal in a Texas Senate trial on September 16.

“We’ve made great strides in addressing many of the critical needs of our state, especially in rural Texas, to ensure that we continue to be the envy of the nation,” Kacal said in a press release that he posted on X. “But there’s more work to be done. Now, more than ever, it’s important for the rural areas of our state to maintain a strong voice in the Texas House that speaks to our values and way of life. It is my great honor to be that voice for District 12, and I look forward to continuing my service to our communities.”

Kacal faced competition in the primary election in 2022 when he and Ben Bius advanced to overtime with 47 percent and 42 percent of the opening vote. Kacal sailed to victory in the runoff with 57 percent of the vote. Kacal run without primary opposition in 2020 and 2018 after staving off two challengers in 2016 with 70 percent. Kacal was elected initially in 2012.

more to come ...