We’ve gotta compete in these redrawn districts.
While a number of Republicans are eyeing [the redrawn CD35] — in addition to the Texas GOP’s preferred candidate — Democrats have been slow to line up for the open seat.
But San Antonio political consultants say it would be a mistake for Democrats not to put up a fight to keep the seat, which has been Democrat-held since its creation after the 2010 Census. They point to narrower GOP margins of victory in other Texas races in recent years — apart from Trump’s commanding showing in last year’s presidential contest.
Then-Vice President Kamala Harris “did so poorly in 2024 that it’s not an accurate partisan benchmark,” said Democratic political strategist Bert Santibañez.
Harris lost Texas by nearly 14 percentage points — which Santibañez considers an “outlier” compared to Democratic presidential nominees’ performance in previous election cycles. Joe Biden lost the state by 5.6 points in 2020 and Hillary Clinton by 9 points in 2016.
Under the new lines, Trump would have won the 35th District by less than 2 points in 2020, according to a San Antonio Express-News analysis.
Even in Texas’ U.S. Senate race in November, Republican incumbent Sen. Ted Cruz would have won by less than 4 points to former U.S. Rep. Colin Allred under the new boundaries.
“Absolutely it’s still winnable,” said Andrew Solano, a political consultant who served as Rep. Lloyd Doggett’s San Antonio district director from 2013 to 2015 when the Austin Democrat represented the 35th District, which ran from Austin down Interstate 35 to San Antonio.
[…]
So far, only John Lira and Whitney Masterson-Moyes have filed statements of candidacy. A retired Marine, Lira was the 2022 Democratic nominee for Texas’ 23rd Congressional District. Masterson-Moyes owns a clay shooting club in Guadalupe County.
Beto Altamirano, a first-time candidate who came in third in San Antonio’s mayoral election in May, has been asked to consider running, said Solano, who worked as his campaign manager.
Altamirano showed himself to be a prolific fundraiser who energized younger voters.
Because the congressional district will now be anchored on San Antonio’s South Side, “there’s going to be a lot of electeds or former electeds for that area on the Democratic side who are going to take a look — as they should,” Solano said. “Anybody who has a base, current or former, of constituents should be looking at that race.”
One of those people is state Sen. Roland Gutierrez, D-San Antonio, a former San Antonio City Councilman for the Southeast Side’s District 3 who previously served in the Texas House of Representatives. He said he views the redrawn district as a “swing seat” and has been approached by people in Washington, D.C., about launching a campaign.
“We certainly are exploring all of our options,” Gutierrez said. “I have enjoyed representing the Southeast Side of San Antonio and South Texas for the better part of 20 years, and it has been my highest honor and privilege to do that.”
Former District 3 City Councilwoman Rebecca Viagran, who’s currently president and CEO of the South Texas Business Partnership, is seen as a potential contender.
Viagran sought the 35th District seat in the 2022 Democratic primary, coming in third. Casar won the party nomination.
She did not respond to a request for comment.
One San Antonio Democrat who was rumored to be considering running in the 35th District, state Rep. Philip Cortez, a former Southwest Side city councilman, said through a campaign spokesperson that he is “100% focused on winning reelection in his House district.”
I’m glad there are some candidates already and others in the mix. Neither Lira nor Masterson-Moyes excite me, and if they’re the only primary entrants or the top tier among them, I will consider this to be a failure, but there’s time. Any of Sen. Gutierrez, former Council Member Viagran, or Rep. Cortez (*) would be fine; I don’t know enough about Beto Altamirano to say for sure, but he could be in that group as well. The start of filing season will be here in about two months, so let’s get going. And let’s do the same exercise for CD09 while we’re at it, too.
When Republicans unveiled a new congressional map shrinking the number of Democratic districts in Texas, Democratic Rep. Lloyd Doggett was quick to announce he would run in the sole Austin-based district.
Doggett, a formidable incumbent with three decades in Congress, was planting a flag with the hope that his Austin counterpart Rep. Greg Casar would stay in his current district despite its new boundaries favoring Republicans. But Doggett’s move unexpectedly set off a powerful coalition that worked publicly and privately to support the younger congressman.
Three weeks after Doggett dug in on the promise to run again, he changed his mind, opting to retire at the end of his term and support Casar’s candidacy — a move that spared Democrats an expensive primary.
Doggett, 78, still believes he would have beaten Casar in a head to head, and he stands by his position that his colleague should have run in the newly-drawn Congressional District 35, a majority-Hispanic district in San Antonio and outlying counties that bears the same number as Casar’s current district but has little overlap with his constituents. But he realized in August that a race between the two of them would have been damaging.
“It would be a very demanding race for everybody involved,” Doggett said in an interview with The Texas Tribune about his decision, adding that even if he did win “it would still leave a community scarred and split. And that is a community I really care about. And so, I’m satisfied.”
We’ve discussed this before, and you can read on for who did what to bring this about. I agree that Rep. Casar would have been the best candidate for CD35, but I can hardly blame him for wanting a more favorable district, and I would have supported Casar over Doggett if it had come down to it as well. Not because of anything against Rep. Doggett, but sometimes you’ve got to change the guard. It absolutely sucks that this was forced on us, but barring a longshot intervention from the courts it’s where we are.
(*) Rep. Cortez has some baggage and would be easily my third choice, probably the fourth choice if Altamirano is a real possibility. But he has run and won multiple elections, and you have to take that seriously.