Republican politicians are under fire in Texas but GOP Gov. Greg Abbott has yet to break open his campaign coffers to assist.
Democrats are pouring $6.2 million into Texas House races in an attempt to flip seats.
“The worst-case scenario would be that the Democrats actually pick up the seats, many of which were already won during Democrat Beto O’Rourke's Senate race against Republican Sen. Ted Cruz (R) in 2018,” Luke Macias, CEO of Macias Strategies, a Texas-based political consulting firm that works for a number of Republican elected officials, said. “Those seats alone provide the Democrats a path to taking back control of the Texas House and then redistricting those Texas House seats in a way that's more beneficial to Democrats and gerrymandering the congressional seats in such a way that is most beneficial to Democrats for the next 10 years.”
As previously reported, Forward Majority, a super political action committee, raised $6.2 million from corporations, unions, associations, and individuals and will spend it on influencing 18 House races.
“I think that is a significant concern of the governor's office but so far the pressure has been put on existing lawmakers to raise the funds necessary for their reelection,” Macias told the Lone Star Standard. “But there may come a point in time at which the governor does decide to begin to invest his own resources into protecting Texas House members.”
Just this week, Texas Attorney General Paxton was accused of bribery and criminal conduct in a letter addressed to the human resources director for the Office of the Attorney General. It was signed by seven staffers.
“I could definitely see Democrats trying to jump on it as more ammunition that voters would have to give Democrats control of the Texas House of Representatives,” said Macias in an interview. “It will be a little harder to take that issue and throw it on top of existing lawmakers who have nothing to do with it but I don't think it will stop Democrats from trying.”
The Texan reported that Abbott’s campaign funds include cash-on-hand of $37.7 million.
“The reality is that Abbott's team has yet to aggressively spend to hold the seats and it's something that some people hope and pray he does at some point,” Macias said. “It's going to be telling if in the next couple of weeks we see the governor actually start to spend his own campaign account. It will show that they're taking even more seriously the efforts that Democrats are making to flipping the Texas House.”
The 18 districts that the Democrats are reportedly targeting include four open seats in which Republicans are retiring.
“Where Democrats realize they have the most potential is in the Metroplex and in the Houston area,” Macias said. “They're definitely investing hard in some of these suburban districts which have become less Republican over the last 10 years. There's also nine of those districts in particular that Beto O’Rourke won and so they are honing in on those districts while also reaching out into a number of districts that Sen. Ted Cruz won but by a small margin. There's not a particular seat that stands out.”
