The runoff for the Democratic nomination in CD35 is one of the more interesting stories for May, featuring two different types of candidates who present contrasting theories of how to win this hardly insurmountable district. Here’s a story from the San Antonio Report on Johnny Garcia about one of those candidates.
Johnny Garcia
TX35 hopeful Johnny Garcia hasn’t even secured his party’s nomination yet, but national Democrats are already listing him among their top candidates to take back seats in the U.S. House this year.
The 39-year-old Westside native has spent nearly his entire career at the Bexar County Sheriff’s Office, rising from jail guard to the SWAT team and later serving as the sheriff’s communications director.
Though his campaign launch in the new 35th Congressional District surprised some local political watchers, national Democratic Party leaders say he’s exactly what they needed to put a tough seat in play.
This week Garcia was added to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee’s (DCCC) red-to-blue program, an elite group of 20 candidates believed to have the best chance of flipping seats either currently held by a Republican or — in light of many redrawn congressional maps — drawn to favor one.
The designation means he’ll get additional strategic guidance, staff resources, candidate trainings and fundraising support for a race that Democratic super PACs are already reserving ads for this fall.
That’s after he was already a personal guest of the Democratic National Committee chair at a national fundraiser earlier this year, and benefitted from hundreds of thousands of dollars in TV ads boosting him through a four-way primary.
[…]
And despite spending less than $5,000 on her campaign, housing activist Maureen Galindo finished first in Democrats’ race, taking 29% in the first round, to Garcia’s 27%.
Nevertheless, national Democrats say Garcia’s moderate politics and blue collar work experience are exactly what they need to win a district that’s been trending away from them in the era of President Donald Trump.
Under its new boundaries, Democrat Beto O’Rourke would have come a half a percentage point short of carrying TX35 in 2018 — the last midterm election under a Trump presidency.
But by 2024, those same voters supported Trump by more than 10 percentage points, making the area a ripe target for Republicans’ effort to squeeze more GOP seats out of Texas.
Democrats hoped a bigger-name candidate would jump in after incumbent U.S. Rep Greg Casar (D-Austin) was drawn out in redistricting, yet likely contenders from the legislature were set on the idea courts would eventually throw out Republicans’ gerrymandered maps.
It wasn’t until the filing period had already opened that the Supreme Court gave the green light for new maps to be used.
In that void, the little-known Garcia caught attention from national operatives with a campaign launch focused on his “old-school Democratic principles.”
[…]
Garcia says his original plan was to run for office when Salazar moved on to something bigger.
But seven months into his campaign, Garcia is now sounding more like a congressional candidate by the day.
Speaking to the North East Bexar County Democrats last month, Garcia said he was running to address “extreme gas prices, healthcare prices, grocery prices that we’re facing as a result of this failed administration.”
He also drew applause for criticizing Texas GOP leaders’ over a gerrymandering effort he said was “created to silence Latino, black and minority voters” here in San Antonio.
Some in the audience remained skeptical about his support from national Democratic groups that spent big to boost him from obscurity. But Garcia said that without a candidate drawing resources to the district, Bexar County stood to end this historically opportune election cycle with even fewer Democrats than when it started.
“I can’t control who decides to put their support in me, but from the get-go … there’s been only one candidate in this race that has come out as the front-runner and has garnered the support that we haven’t had here in Texas,” Garcia said. “We know we need a candidate that is going to help us win back the majority in the House, so we can put some guardrails on this reckless administration.”
See here for some background on Garcia’s opponent in the runoff, Maureen Galindo. Garcia’s the kind of boring, moderate, non-controversial candidate that the DCCC tends to back, for sometimes better and sometimes worse. The main difference that I see right now between him and Galindo is that he has raised a decent amount of money for this campaign, and she has raised bupkis. I appreciate that she had a relatively strong showing in the March primary, and that she was quickly endorsed by the other two candidates in the race for the runoff. She has clearly done some things right and I don’t want to be dismissive of that. But there’s no hope to win a swing seat race like this without ample resources to get your name and message out. Having a strong social media presence, as Galindo does, is a great thing, but it’s not nearly enough. I know no one likes to raise money, and the big-money brokers have far too much power and influence, but she hasn’t even shown a sign of generating grassroots small-dollar contributions. That’s just no wat to win.
I appreciate that this article referenced the 2018 Beto numbers and not just the 2024 Trump numbers in analyzing the race, which has been a hobbyhorse of mine. That said, the first poll data we have in CD35 makes it look like we’re playing with 2024 numbers, so there’s clearly work to be done. It’s nice for Garcia that the DCCC is backing him, but he didn’t exactly break out in the March primary, and it’s on him to prove that he’s got what it takes to win, too. The Chron has more.