I’m going to take a two-part look at the finance reports in State House districts. Part One will be from Harris County, looking at both contested primaries and contested November races. Part Two will focus on races in the counties around Harris. Previous entries in this series include Harris County offices, and statewide races.
Undrai Fizer, HD126
Natali Hurtado, HD126
Sam Harless, HD126
Josh Markle, HD128
Mary Williams, HD128
Briscoe Cain, HD128
Robert Hoskins, HD128
Kayla Alix, HD129
Dennis Paul, HD129
Ryan Lee, HD129
Bryan Henry, HD130
Tom Oliverson (PAC), HD130
Alma Allen, HD131
Carey Lashley, HD131
Deondre Moore, HD131
Elvonte Patton, HD131
Gina Calanni, HD132
Angelica Garcia, HD132
Mike Schofield, HD132
Sandra Moore, HD133
Jim Murphy (PAC), HD133
Lanny Bose, HD134
Ann Johnson, HD134
Ruby Powers, HD134
Sarah Davis, HD134
Jon Rosenthal, HD135
Merrilee Beazley, HD135
Justin Ray, HD135
Akilah Bacy, HD138
Jenifer Pool, HD138
Josh Wallenstein, HD138
Josh Flynn, HD138
Lacey Hull, HD138
Claver Kamau-Imani, HD138
Jarvis Johnson, HD139
Angeanette Thibodeaux, HD139
Senfronia Thompson, HD141
Willie Franklyn, HD141
Harold Dutton, HD142
Richard Bonton, HD142
Jerry Davis, HD142
Natasha Ruiz, HD142
Shawn Thierry, HD146
Ashton Woods, HD146
Garnet Coleman, HD147
Colin Ross, HD147
Aurelia Wagner, HD147
Anna Eastman, HD148
Adrian P. Garcia, HD148
Cynthia Reyes-Revilla, HD148
Penny Shaw, HD148
Emily Wolf, HD148
Lui La Rotta, HD148
Michael Walsh, HD150
Valoree Swanson, HD150
Candidate Raised Spent Loan On Hand
===================================================
Fizer 800 319 0 500
Hurtado 25,091 9,588 0 11,752
Harless 73,265 11,022 20,000 103,669
Markle 78,906 12,426 0 68,081
Williams
Cain 125,891 39,462 0 133,616
Hoskins 4,575 26,033 0 3,804
Alix 2,141 1,343 0 898
Paul 85,621 38,444 156,000 116,486
Lee 10,720 4,779 0 5,879
Henry 3,385 2,901 0 3,385
Oliverson 56,555 62,895 60,000 101,693
Allen 11,100 13,251 0 32,798
Lashley
Moore
Patton 43,075 1,100 0 10,000
Calanni 82,002 24,571 0 70,770
Garcia 28,045 20,076 0 21,309
Schofield 27,400 24,152 0 152,549
Moore 2,000 2,539 0 1,502
Murphy 120,076 132,583 0 487,913
Bose 54,573 13,702 0 40,871
Johnson 58,287 31,075 0 148,054
Powers 43,015 40,852 0 18,299
Davis 89,750 76,040 0 230,958
Rosenthal 70,841 42,143 0 41,320
Beazley 0 465 0 0
Ray 52,666 24,644 0 47,082
Bacy 28,066 6,799 0 14,455
Pool
Wallenstein 42,137 35,766 10,000 51,786
Flynn 12,080 20,761 0 9,166
Hull 50,068 4,551 0 45,516
Kamau-Imani 18,800 2,229 0 16,570
Johnson 8,775 3,619 2,500 26,946
Thibodeaux 7,000 2,069 0 4,931
Thompson 104,216 136,801 0 889,738
Franklyn 0 1,873 0 1,336
Dutton 26,876 16,676 0 79,263
Bonton
Davis 139,565 9,787 0 129,928
Ruiz
Thierry 13,710 11,825 0 13,446
Woods 1,485 1,263 0 1,690
Coleman 97,990 129,532 0 110,589
Ross
Wagner
Eastman 75,378 57,861 0 33,967
Garcia 12,100 2,500 0 4,000
Reyes-Revilla 3,547 0 8,000 3,547
Shaw 11,635 15,531 34,000 15,454
Wolf 0 0 200 235
La Rotta 11,280 10,602 0 4,095
Walsh 0 33 0 33
Swanson 10,201 27,643 34,040 34,657
You may also want to refer to this Trib story and this Reform Austin post about the finance reports in the top tier House races. I don’t have the bandwidth to look at all of them, so check them out for their reporting on it.
There are several contested Democratic primaries, including five challenges to incumbents in safe D districts. This was a popular pastime in the 2000s, during the Craddick era – Alma Allen beat Ron Wilson, Armando Walle beat Kevin Bailey, Borris Miles took three out of four against Al Edwards. The latter of those occurred in 2012, and while there have been primary opponents to incumbents over the past few cycles, none have come close to succeeding; Edward Pollard in HD137 and Demetria Smith in HD149, both of whom got about 35% in their races in 2016, came closest. The one this year that has the greatest potential to upset the status quo is in HD142, where longtime State Rep. Harold Dutton faces unrest over his role in passing the TEA takeover bill as well as the tumult in City Council District B. Still-current District B incumbent Jerry Davis, who transferred all of his city campaign funds into his State Rep campaign treasury, is the main threat to Dutton. I can’t wait to see how the endorsements play out – Davis has already gotten the nod from the Texas Gulf Coast Area Labor Federation (TGCALF), AFL-CIO, the only challenger to an incumbent in Harris County to do so. Elvonte Patton, who was a candidate for HCDE in the 2018 primary, has a nice fundraising total, but most of that is in kind, and Alma Allen has vanquished previous challengers with 85% or more of the vote in the past.
On the Republican, there’s not much action outside of an attempt to install a grownup in HD128. As I understand it, Robert Hoskins has some establishment support in his effort to knock out Briscoe Cain, but as you can see not a lot of money. We both know which speaks louder.
The four most hotly contested seats, one of which is open, is where the bulk of the action is. All three contenders in HD134 raised similar sums, but Ann Johnson has a commanding lead in cash on hand thanks to a big first half of the year. Akilah Bacy and Josh Wallenstein both raised a few bucks in HD138, with Wallenstein doing a bit better, while Lacey Hull led the pack on the Republican side. I have to assume now that his spot on the ballot is assured, Josh Flynn will ramp it up. Freshman Reps Gina Calanni and Jon Rosenthal both outpaced the totals of their potential opponents. The HD132 GOP race will be interesting, as Angelica Garcia has Greg Abbott’s endorsement but former Rep. Mike Schofield still has cash left over from his 2018 loss. To some extent, none of these totals matter that much because there will be a ton of PAC money on both sides in all of the competitive districts. Still, a candidate or incumbent who can raise cash on their own is stronger than one who relies mostly on others doing that work.
In HD148, where there’s both a contested primary and a special election runoff (happening now!), the main thing to note is that these totals are all from October 27 through the end of the year, as all of the candidates save Emily Wolf had eight-day finance reports from their November 2019 races. Penny Shaw has gotten a couple of early endorsements, so the 30-day report in early February will tell a more detailed picture for this race. As for the special election runoff, there’s nothing to suggest anything unusual, Erica Greider’s weekend daydreams aside.
Beyond that, not a whole lot else to discuss. Jim Murphy’s cash on hand total is one reason why I speculated he might consider a run for Mayor in 2023 if the Lege is no longer amenable to him. Sarah Davis would probably have more cash on hand right now if she hadn’t had to fend off primary challengers in the past. As above, I’m pretty sure she’ll have the funds she needs to run that race. The Dems have some longer shots out there, with HD126 being the most competitive of them, so keep an eye on Natali Hurtado. I’ll be back next time with the State House races from elsewhere in the region.
