Posts Tagged ‘Jim Wright (Republican)’

Paxton Slaughters Cornyn, Middleton and Thomas Win, French Leading

Wednesday, May 27th, 2026

Outgoing Rep. Dan Crenshaw can rest slightly easier tonight: His is no longer the most embarrassing incumbent Texan Republican loss of 2026.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton slaughtered incumbent John Cornyn in the Republican runoff. As of this writing, the Texas Tribune tracking page has Paxton garnering 64% of the vote against Cornyn’s 36%. That’s a crushing defeat for a four-term incumbent, especially one who went into the runoff with a slight lead over Paxton. But once in the runoff, Paxton constantly polled ahead of Cornyn, with Republicans dissatisfied with Cornyn’s defections on key conservative priorities over the years (especially on the issue of illegal alien amnesty), and President Trump endorsing Paxton over Cornyn was the final nail in his coffin. I mean, look at this freaking map:

That’s a curb-stomping.

State Senator Mayes Middleton scored a decisive win over U.S. Congressman Chip Roy in the Texas Attorney General’s race by around a 55-45% margin. I think Middleton ran the more effective direct mail campaign, establishing himself as the “MAGA” and cultural conservative candidate early on, and painting as weak on a variety of cultural issues early on. I didn’t see any actually see any flyers for Roy until the week of the runoff, when it was way too late.

Thomas Smith beat Alison Fox decisively by about 58-42% for the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals Place 3.

Right now, Bo French is leading incumbent Jim Wright by about 26,000 votes with 94% of ballots in, so I think he’s going to hold on to win. That would mean I was 4 for 4 in my runoff picks. Behold, the power of my endorsements! (If they are powerful, it’s a pretty recent development, given my support for the Presidential campaigns of Jack Kemp, Phil Gramm and Rick Perry.)

In other results:

  • Maureen “send Zionist to the camps” Galindo lost handily to Johnny Garcia for the TX-35 Democrat nomination.
  • Colin Allred beat Julie Johnson for the TX-33 Dem nod.
  • TX-18 incumbent Christian Menefee (age 38) beat TX-9 incumbent Al Green (age 78) in the Democrat TX-18 primary by a 2-1 margin.
  • Speaking of TX-9, the Trump-endorsed Alex Mealer beat Briscoe Cain (who supported Dade Phelan and voted for the Paxton impeachment) in the Republican primary by an over 2-1 margin.

    • It’s late and thunderstorms are rolling through, and I’ve already briefly lost power a couple of times, so I’ll go ahead and press publish on this. But it was a very good night for Texas conservatives.

    Possibly more tomorrow.

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    Posted in Elections, Republicans, Texas | 6 Comments »

    Texas Runoff Election Roundup

    Tuesday, May 26th, 2026

    Today is primary runoff day in Texas, so get out and vote if you haven’t already.

    Here’s a brief roundup of Texas election-related news.

  • First up, the crazy Democrat in the 35th Congressional District runoff who literally wants to send Jews to camps.

    TX-35 Democratic candidate Maureen Galindo says she will convert ICE detention center in Karnes County into an internment camp for “American Zionists.”

    “It will also be a castration processing center for pedophiles, which will probably be most of the Zionists,” she added.

    If you’re an American and you support Israel, well, it’s the Texas concentration camp for you.

    A much better use of resources than deporting illegal immigrants, for sure.

    Here’s the San Antonio Current:

    ‘She’ll turn Karnes ICE Detention Center into a prison for American Zionists and former ICE officers for human trafficking,’ Galindo wrote in an Instagram post over the weekend, referring to herself in the third person. ‘It will also be a castration processing center for pedophiles, which will probably be most of the Zionists.’

    Johnny Garcia is her primary opponent. The 35th used to be an Austin-San Antonio district, but redistricting changed to stretch from southeast San Antonio all the way down to just short of Goliad.

  • Gambling interests are pouring a lot of money into the Railroad Commission runoff.

    One $500,000 donation by the casino advocacy group funded by the Las Vegas Sands Corp. has made it the single largest donor in the runoff election for the Texas Railroad Commission, the department largely responsible for regulating the oil and gas industry.

    Texas voters heading to the polls in the Republican Primary Runoff Election for the Texas Railroad Commission are getting a fresh look at how big-money players from the gambling world are trying to shape even the most obscure corners of state government.

    Incumbent Commissioner Jim Wright just reported a $500,000 contribution from Texas Sands PAC, the latest in what has become a pattern of heavy spending by casino-backed groups and predatory gambling interests in Texas elections.1

    Right off the bat, the donation looks out of place. The Railroad Commission’s core job is regulating oil and gas production, pipelines, and mining. It has nothing to do with gambling or casino bills and legalization. Yet a PAC funded directly by Las Vegas Sands, the Chinese-centered casino giant, has decided half a million dollars is a smart investment in Wright’s reelection.

    I wonder how Chinese gambling interests think they can benefit from having their man on the Railroad Commission.

    Wright is running against conservative Bo French.

  • In the last week, Chip Roy finally started dropping flyers in his runoff against Mayes Middleton, something Middleton has been doing for months. So behold this tale of two flyers:

    The problem for Roy is that Middleton has already been painting him as the the “non-MAGA” candidate for months. Any low-information voters that could be persuaded by a flyer have probably already been persuaded that Middleton is the MAGA candidate. Roy let himself be outMAGAed early in the race and I don’t see him catching up now.

    • I already voted early for:

  • Texas Senate race: Ken Paxton over John Cornyn
  • Texas Attorney General race: Mayes Middleton over Chip Roy
  • Texas Railroad Commission: Bo French over Jim Wright
  • Court of Criminal Appeals Place 3: Thomas Smith over Alison Fox

    • Go vote if you haven’t already!

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    Posted in Democrats, Elections, Republicans, Texas | 10 Comments »

    Texas Primary Election Results: Toth Topples Crenshaw, Huffines Romps, Cornyn/Paxton, Middleton/Roy, Gonzales/Herrera Head To Runoff

    Wednesday, March 4th, 2026

    Most of yesterday’s primary races went exactly as you would expect, but there were a few surprises among the results, so let’s dig in.

  • At the top of the ticket, incumbent John Cornyn and Attorney General Ken Paxton head to a runoff for the Republican nomination for the U.S. Senate. Right now, Cornyn is leading Paxton by less than 1.5%, which isn’t a very comfortable position for a longtime incumbent, and I suspect there are plenty of Wesley Hunt voters dissatisfied with Cornyn.
  • In the U.S. 2nd Congressional District race, Steve Toth thumped incumbent Dan Crenshaw by 17 points. Toth winning isn’t a shock, but doing so by such a robust margin is. From someone who slayed on Saturday Night Live in 2018, Crenshaw’s rise was meteoric, but his fall was no less dramatic. (Previously.) (Also previously.)
  • For much of the count, scandal-plagued U.S. 23rd Congressional District incumbent Tony Gonzales led challenger Brandon Herrera by a slight margin, but with 96% of the vote in, Herrera leads Gonzales by just under a thousand votes. Herrera almost knocked off Gonzales in 2024, but with undeniable evidence that Gonzales had an extramarital affair with a staffer who killer herself, Gonzales is clearly toast. He should save everybody a lot of time, money and embarrassment and not only bow out of the race, but resign his congressional seat in disgrace so Gov. Greg Abbott can appoint Herrera to replace him for the remainder of his current term as well.
  • Speaking of Abbott, both he and Lt. Governor Dan Patrick cruised to easy victories, Abbott with 82% of the vote against ten opponents, Patrick with 85% of the vote against three.
  • In the closely-watched Attorney General race, State Senator Mayes Middleton and U.S. Congressman Chip Roy are headed to a runoff, with Middleton leading by over 150,000 votes. That’s a pretty big gap for Roy to make up.
  • In the three-way Comptroller race, Don Huffines won outright over Kelly Hancock and Christi Craddick. It’s tempting to think that President Trump’s endorsement of Huffines lifted him to an outright win rather than a runoff, except:
  • President Trump also endorsed incumbent Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller over challenger Nate Sheets, but Sheets won by 5%. I think this may be the only case where an Abbott-endorsed candidate defeated a Trump-endorsed candidate, unless I’m overlooking a down-ballot race.
  • Indeed, it was a rare outright victory for Abbott endorsed or appointed candidates this cycle, as Abbott appointees Aaron Reitz (Attorney General) and Kelly Hancock (Comptroller) both went down to defeat.
  • In the Railroad Commissioner race, incumbent Jim Wright and challenger Bo French are headed to a runoff with a mere 4,000 votes separating them.
  • U.S. Rep. John Carter handily secured the nomination over a nine challenger circus that included Valentina “Koran-burner” Gomez, who placed second with 10% of the vote, and Offer Vince “Shamwow” Shlomi, who came in a disappointing sixth with 4.1% of the vote.
  • Unlike the Republican primary, there were zero surprises on the Democrat side, with all the Party’s anointed candidates cruising to victory:
    • James Talarico defeated U.S. Congressman Jasmine Crockett by some 150,000 votes, as foretold by the prophecy.
    • As predicted, Gina Hinjosa easily secured the right to be slaughtered by Greg Abbott in the Governor’s race, defeating Chris Bell and seven other candidates.
    • With 48% of the vote, Vikki Goodwin looks headed to a runoff with Marcos Velez in the Lt. Governor’s race.
    • With 48.1% of the vote, Nathan Johnson looks headed for a runoff in the Attorney General race with Joe Jaworski.
    • With 48% of the vote, Sarah Eckhardt looks headed to a runoff with Savant Moore in the Comptroller race.

    It’s always possible the underdogs in those races might just save themselves time and money and drop out.

    The Democrat primary turnout totals should be a wake-up call for the Texas GOP. Usually they run far behind Republican numbers, but this year they’re about at parity, an ominous sign for an off-year election with a Republican in the White House.

    Those were the races I was paying attention to. If you noticed others with interesting results, feel free to share them in the comments below.

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    Posted in Austin, Democrats, Republicans, Texas | 7 Comments »

    Texas 2026 Republican Primaries: Comptroller and Railroad Commissioner Races

    Tuesday, February 24th, 2026

    As promised, here’s a look a the Republican primary races for Comptroller and Railroad Commissioner.

    The Comptroller race features incumbent Kelly Hancock (who was appointed comptroller by Governor Greg Abbott after Glenn Hegar resigned to become Texas A&M system chairman), plus challengers former state senator Donald Huffines, Railroad Commissioner Christi Craddick, and longshot Michael Berlanga (who, at last count, had raised zero dollars for the race).

    The pick here is easily Don Huffines, who has a long history of conservative activism on a wide variety of issues, from school choice to controlling the border to ending the Flu Manchu lockdowns, and he was always a reliable vote for conservative interests in the state senate. He even challenged Abbott from the right in the 2022 gubernatorial primary, finishing third behind Abbott and Allen West. His endorsement list includes Ted Cruz, Ron Paul, Charlie Kirk, and Vivek Ramaswamy, plus every single conservative group Texas Scorecard polled (True Texas Project, Texas Gun Rights, Texas Family Project, Grassroots America: We The People (GAWTP), Texas Right to Life (TRL), and Texans Uniting for Reform and Freedom (TURF)).

    Hancock, in addition to being selected rather than elected, is too cozy with gambling interests and voted to impeach Ken Paxton. So he’s right out, no matter how much money he’s thrown around to advertise on conservative websites.

    I’ve voted for Craddick for Railroad Commissioner, but she’s always seemed to be slight squishy and trading on her former speaker father’s name. The most famous person endorsing her seems to be H. Ross Perot, Jr., which is not a recommendation.

    Speaking of the Railroad Commissioner, this is theoretically a five way race, but three of the candidates (Katherine Culbert, Hawk Dunlap II and Ty Matlock) are badly-funded longshots. The real race is between incumbent Jim Wright and Tarrant County Republican Party Chairman Bo French. French announced for the race in November, promises an “America first” approach.

    The Texas oil and gas industry needs a strong defender who will never back down to leftist pressure,” said French. “As your next Railroad Commissioner, I will fight to end DEI, radical climate change ideology, and foreign capture of our oil and gas industries. I am the battle-tested conservative in this race, and I will always fight to put America First.”

    Sounds good, and his list of conservative endorsements confirms he’s most conservative candidate in the race. That Texas Scorecard round up shows every conservative org endorsing him ((True Texas Project, Texas Gun Rights, Texas Family Project, Texas Right to Life, and Texans Uniting for Reform and Freedom) except Grassroots America: We The People, who endorsed Wright.

    But the real record-scratch moment on Jim Wright’s endorsements is the presence of state rep Charlie Geren, the Joe Straus loyalist French previously primaried. Geren helped instigate the impeachment proceedings against Paxton and may have had an operative file a false CPS report against French. Having Charlie Geren endorse someone is a pretty good sign you should vote for his opponent.

    The clear Railroad Commission pick is Bo French.

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    Posted in Elections, Republicans, Texas | 4 Comments »