Thread: Texans vote in primaries shaken by Tea Party influence

Texans vote in primaries shaken by Tea Party influence


By Jon Herskovitz 2 hours ago

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AUSTIN, Texas (Reuters) - Texans went to the polls on Tuesday in primary elections where the top candidates for governor were expected to post easy wins and favorites of the conservative Tea Party movement are trying to topple established Republicans in several races.

U.S. Senator John Cornyn, a Republican, will win his race easily, opinion polls show. Attorney General Greg Abbott, the leading Republican candidate for governor, and state Senator Wendy Davis, the top Democratic Party candidate, were also expected to win by wide margins.

Voting closes at 7 p.m. U.S. Central Time. Run-off elections will be held on May 27 between the top two vote-getters in races where a single candidate did not win an outright majority.

The election marks a changing of the guard for the Republicans with long-serving Governor Rick Perry not seeking re-election, perhaps to pursue a presidential run in 2016. Republicans dominate the statehouse and have not lost a statewide race since 1994.

U.S. Senator Ted Cruz has emerged as one of the leaders of the Texas Republicans, pushing politics in the already conservative state even further to the right, analysts said. He is a favorite of the Tea Party movement, which is considered both conservative and libertarian and also populist in advocating for a smaller federal government and tax cuts.

Perry, governor since 2000, has won praise for increasing jobs, exports and the size of the Texas economy, which has a $1.4 trillion annual GDP, slightly larger than South Korea's.

Perry has been criticized for not doing enough to improve schools, provide health insurance for the poor, while pushing a socially conservative agenda with increased abortion restrictions and a ban on same-sex marriage.

A host of Republican hopefuls have been trying to ride on the coattails of new star Cruz, turning campaigns into raucous affairs about how much they despise President Barack Obama's healthcare policy, embrace the constitutional right to bear arms and see a need to raise alarms about undocumented immigrants.

"The Republican lieutenant governor's race and attorney general's race have been races to the right," said Sherri Greenberg, Director at the Center for Politics and Governance at the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas.

These two races were likely heading for run-offs.

In the Dallas area, U.S. Representative Pete Sessions is the most prominent Republican in the Tea Party firing line. Challenger Katrina Pierson's website features a picture of Cruz and a quote in which he calls her "an utterly fearless principled conservative."

In neighboring Fort Worth, Cruz has endorsed local Tea Party leader Konni Burton as the Republican nominee for a state Senate seat.

State Senator Ken Paxton, running in a crowded field for attorney general, has featured a comment on his website in which Cruz calls him a "conservative warrior."

http://news.yahoo.com/texans-vote-pr...--finance.html

Texas primary opens midterm election season: 3 things to watch


The tea party movement that pushed Sen. Ted Cruz to victory in 2012 is fading in opinion polls: Will it also fade at the ballot box in 2014? And will Hispanic voters turn a red state blue or, at least, purple? . . .

http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/DC-Deco...hings-to-watch

Texas primaries: 5 things to watch

There’s no shortage of election drama in the Lone Star State. | Getty
CloseBy ALEX ISENSTADT | 3/4/14 5:06 AM EST

The 2014 primary season begins with a bang Tuesday in Texas, where there’s no shortage of drama.

Two much-ballyhooed tea party insurgents are watching their bids to unseat powerful Republican incumbents go down in flames. The oldest member ever to serve in the House is facing the very real possibility of losing the seat he’s held since 1981 to an opponent who’s about half his age. And a freshman House Democrat could fall to a wealthy challenger who’s dropping big bucks.


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Tuesday won’t necessarily be the end of the primary road for Texas candidates. Under state election rules, if no candidate receives a majority of the vote, the top two finishers will head to a May 27 runoff.

(Also on POLITICO: Texas tea party struggling)

Here is POLITICO’s look at the five things to watch in the Texas primaries:

1. The Stockman disaster
To say GOP Rep. Steve Stockman’s bid to oust Sen. John Cornyn has been a debacle would be putting it mildly. Since launching his campaign in December, Stockman’s received a wave of negative press attention. He’s been hammered over everything from holding few campaign events to abruptly leaving the country for an overseas trip. Then there was the emergence of a 1977 mugshot from a Stockman arrest for drug possession. (Stockman’s campaign has denied that the arrest took place.)

(Full Texas primary election results)

Tea party activists aren’t fans of Cornyn – they’ve hammered him for supporting the Troubled Asset Relief Program and the debt ceiling increase. And, as the former chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, he took plenty of heat for recruiting candidates conservatives perceived as too moderate. But the tea party crowd has distanced itself from Stockman. In a recent letter, one coalition of tea party leaders told Stockman: “As your campaign rolled into 2014, Texans have witnessed what might be the laziest statewide campaign to date. … We are looking for a bold, courageous leader with integrity — a leader who will make himself available to the people. Your actions have disqualified you.”

(Also on POLITICO: Race for Stockman seat messy)

Stockman is one of more than a half-dozen Republicans looking to knock off Cornyn, the Senate minority whip, yet none have gained traction. Some tea party activists are supporting Dwayne Stovall, a bridge construction contractor. But Stovall’s raised just $62,000, about 1/200th of the $12.7 million Cornyn’s brought in.

2. Weak tea
Stockman’s not the only conservative hopeful biting the dust. Katrina Pierson, a Dallas tea party leader, has seen her Republican primary campaign against Rep. Pete Sessions falter.

Pierson’s received the support of FreedomWorks, a D.C.-based tea party group, and former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin. But she’s had a hard time raising cash — she’s taken in just 1/10th of what the incumbent has, raising $144,000 to Sessions’s $1.4 million. That’s made it hard for Pierson to promote herself in a Dallas media market where running TV ads is a pricey proposition.

Sessions, the House Rules Committee chairman and a former National Republican Congressional Committee head, has used his fundraising connections to stuff his bank account. He’s using his dollars to air TV ads highlighting his role in helping to lead the GOP’s 2010 House takeover.

(PHOTOS: 10 must-watch House races in 2014)

Pierson’s run into other problems. It was recently revealed that she was arrested in 1997 for shoplifting. (Pierson has called the incident a mistake and has said a friend talked her into doing it.) And last week, Joe Arpaio, a controversial Arizona sheriff who has drawn headlines for his hard-line immigration views,rescinded his endorsement of Pierson, saying that she misled him about Sessions’s position on border security. Arpaio’s now backing Sessions.

3. The generational fight
One of Tuesday’s most closely watched races will take place in northeast Texas, where 90-year-old GOP Rep. Ralph Hall — the oldest House member — is embroiled in a hard-fought contest. Hall’s most serious primary foe is John Ratcliffe, a wealthy former U.S. attorney who has spent more than $400,000 out of his own pocket to try ousting the 17-term congressman.

Unlike many other Republican primary challengers, Ratcliffe isn’t running under the tea party banner. Instead, the 48-year-old contender is casting the race as a generational battle and presenting himself as a fresh-faced figure.

After more than three decades under Hall’s leadership, Ratcliffe argues that the 4th District is ready for new representation.

(Also on POLITICO: Hall, oldest representative, in toughest fight yet)

There’s reason to believe Ratcliffe has momentum. He has received the endorsement of The Dallas Morning News. And Hall has shown signs of political weakness in recent years: In his 2012 and 2010 primary races, he received less than 60 percent of the vote — a surprisingly poor performance for a veteran incumbent.

Whatever the outcome, Hall, a former Democrat who switched parties in 2004, has said that this will be his final reelection campaign.

4. The big money contender
In the Fort Worth area, freshman Democratic Rep. Marc Veasey is in a fierce fight. His primary opponent, attorney Tom Sanchez, has spent more than $1 million of his own funds in the race.

In a district where Hispanic voters make up more than 60 percent of the electorate, Sanchez is playing up his Latino roots and is not so subtly making the case that the seat needs Hispanic representation. In one of his ads, Sanchez says, “The 33rd District needs a voice. It’s our time. Ahora.”

(Also on POLITICO: Tech checks grow larger for midterms)

Veasey, a member of the Congressional Black Caucus, hasn’t been able to compete with Sanchez’s dollars — he’s been outspent nearly 2-to-1. But his campaign believes it has an argument that will resonate with Democratic primary voters: that Sanchez is really a Republican who can’t be trusted. Sanchez, Veasey’s camp points out, has a long history of donating to and voting for GOP candidates.

Veasey, meanwhile, is highlighting his Democratic credentials, promoting a last-minute endorsement from President Barack Obama.

5. Canseco’s comeback
Former GOP Rep. Quico Canseco is trying to win back the West Texas-based congressional seat he lost in 2012. But his comeback bid has been a quiet one: He has raised only a little more than $200,000 — a surprisingly small figure for a former House member.

Canseco’s top opponent in the primary is Will Hurd, a former CIA officer. He’s been taking indirect aim at Canseco’s D.C. ties, saying in a TV ad: “Our problems can be solved. But we have to change the kinds of people we send to Congress.”

The winner of the primary will face off against Democratic Rep. Pete Gallego, whom political handicappers regard as the favorite to retain the swing 23rd District. Gallego has raised $1 million for the race — about three times more than Hurd and about five times more than Canseco.

Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2014/0...#ixzz2v34sZVdO

CNN projects Texas GOP Rep. Pete Sessions tops tea party challenger; Republican Greg Abbott, Dem Wendy Davis win gubernatorial nods.

updated 9:43 PM EST, Tue March 4, 2014
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