Texas held their 2024 Party Primaries on March 5, 2024. There has been an obscene amount of money spent on the various races. If you look at the last three primary windows (2020, 2022, and 2024), you can see how the contributions to candidates (excluding statewide candidates) has escalated each cycle.
$88 million going into candidate coffers in the 2024 cycle (which doesn’t include any non-profit “issue education” money which doesn’t get counted toward any candidate, and isn’t even submitted to the Texas Ethics Commission for transparency, so truly Dark Money).
The top 50 candidates make up $45 million of that amount. Pretty staggering.
There is only 1 Democrat in that top 50. Nathan Johnson, who is running for re-election in Senate District 16, came in 33rd, with $721k raised. Johnson was the only individual from the Texas Senate. That tells you where the action was. Republicans and the Texas House.
The Texas Primary showed us the Republican party has been devoured, fully and completely. It is about power and adherence to a singular line.
If you look at the last session (regular plus the specials) of the legislature, a House member could vote for:
guns
xenophobia
homophobia
banning books
injecting religion
and then vote against:
vouchers and / or
corrupt AG
and be branded a RINO (Republican In Name Only) who must go, and the billionaires, non-profits they run, the PAC’s they fund, the media echo chambers they feed, will all line up to attempt to remove you from office.
All of the things Republican members voted for (the 7 bullets above and more) are connected to Christian nationalism and the ideas about America it pushes. The “RINO”s just voted against a few items, while voting for the rest of them. And that was all it took for the party to attempt to push them out.
Of the 16 members of the Texas House who voted against public school vouchers (15 of whom also voted to impeach Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton):
6 won their primaries
Keith Bell (HD4)
Drew Darby (HD72)
Jay Dean (HD7)
Charlie Geren (HD99)
Ken King (HD88)
Stan Lambert (HD71)
4 advanced into a runoff (where anything can happen, where turnout is expected to be even more dismal, and where ever MORE money will be spent)
DeWayne Burns (HD58)
Justin Holland (HD33)
John Kuempel (HD44)
Gary VanDeaver (HD1)
6 lost their races
Steve Allison (HD121)
Ernest Bailes (HD18)
Travis Clardy (HD11) He’s the only one who didn’t vote to impeach Paxton
Glenn Rogers (HD60)
Hugh Shine (HD55)
Reggie Smith (HD62)
Those are brutal numbers for incumbents, and doesn’t even mention Texas Speaker of the House Dade Phelan, who is also headed for a runoff after being the focus of ridiculous amounts of money.
How did some of the biggest players (PACs) do with those they supported? (You can access the campaign finance numbers, pulled directly from the Texas Ethics Commission, dressed up with pie charts and stuff here)
Texans for Lawsuit Reform (These are billionaires that have historically been about insulating themselves from regular people being able to sue them due to ruining the environment, people’s health, their investments, or real estate)
$7.7 million given to 69 different candidates (some without opponents) (5 Democrats)
31 Wins (61%)
11 Runoffs (22%)
9 Losses (18%)
Top 10 recipients got $4 million
4 Wins (40%)
3 Runoffs (30%)
3 Losses (30%)
Dade Phelan (Yes, the Speaker took a bunch of his contributions and doled it out to other candidates)
$3.3 million given to 42 different candidates
24 Wins (62%)
7 Runoffs (18%)
8 Losses (21%)
Top 10 recipients got $1.4 million
3 Wins (30%)
4 Runoffs (40%)
3 Losses (30%)
Associated Republicans of Texas (More of the business billionaire class of Texas, with some overlap into TLR)
$2.68 million given to 47 different candidates
19 Wins (50%)
7 Runoffs (18%)
12 Losses (32%)
Top 10 recipients got $1.6 million (outcomes are BRUTAL)
0 Wins (0%)
4 Runoffs (40%)
6 Losses (60%)
Texas Sands (Billionaires pushing casino gambling for Texas)
$1.8 million given to 33 different candidates (11 of them Democrats)
31 Wins (61%)
11 Runoffs (22%)
9 Losses (18%)
Top 10 recipients got $909k
5 Wins (50%)
3 Runoffs (30%)
2 Losses (20%)
Texans United for a Conservative Majority (Billionaires Tim Dunn and Farris Wilks, who had leveraged Empower Texans as a primary vehicle until it became toxic, who had leveraged Defend Texas Liberty as their next vehicle until it became toxic, and now leverage TUCM and a few other smaller PACs to deliver their Christian nationalist message and money)
$1.8 million given to 23 different candidates
8 Wins (35%)
7 Runoffs (30%)
8 Losses (35%)
Top 10 recipients got $1.6 million (having 8 of their top 10 still in the game SCREAMS out where we are)
4 Wins (40%)
4 Runoffs (40%)
2 Losses (20%)
Family Empowerment Coalition (Billionaires pushing for vouchers, to defund the public schools system, which is a Christian nationalist ideal, and has been a focus since 1954, when Brown v Board of Education desegregated schools)
$955k given to 26 different candidates
14 Wins (64%)
4 Runoffs (18%)
4 Losses (18%)
Top 10 recipients got $766k (Just like above, having 8 of 10 still in the game means vouchers are looking ever more likely)
5 Wins (50%)
3 Runoff (30%)
2 Losses (20%)
Charles Butt Public Education PAC (HEB grocery chain magnate Charles Butt believes in Public Education and funds candidates who he thinks also believe in public education [as an aside I think what makes someone pro-public ed is different than what Charles Butt does])
$1.8 million given to 46 different candidates (3 Democrats)
11 Wins (48%)
6 Runoffs (26%)
6 Losses (26%)
Top 10 recipients got $1.5 million
3 Wins (30%)
4 Runoffs (40%)
3 Losses (30%)
I'm not a Republican, but I've supported some who I might have disagreed with on policy, but were decent people who believed in individual rights, the constitution, and the promise of this country. That kind of Republican is no longer welcome in the party. The voting outcomes from the 3/5 Primaries shows it.
If you are a Democrat, what does that mean?
This isn't the moment where Democrats should compromise on our beliefs of the value of all people, sacrificing the rights of this group or that group to appease those the Republican party may have left in their wake. This isn't the moment to go scurrying through red spaces trying to skim a few votes. BUT, if there are former Republicans who are willing to look at the broader set of issues and stop focusing on what people are doing in their private lives, what they may choose to do with their bodies, they are invited to join us and we should stand ready to welcome them.
Ok, so what should we be doing? This is the moment to understand what is at stake and using a healthy dose of both hope (where we can go together is a much better place for all) and fear (where they want us to go destroys democracy) to engage those who haven't felt voice or value, but believe we can be better.
We have 8 months until the General Election. 8 months will fly by. We must focus on spaces where the most potential voters are who believe in our message. Young. Urban. Diverse. Stay focused on what matters. And then we show up in November. For our state, country, and Democracy.
(I’ll call out the specific Texas counties to focus on in another post, so watch for it)
As always, thanks for reading and making it to the bottom!
Me!! Me!! Over the last few years I’ve come to realize I’m a former moderate Republican. I’m trying to bring as many of my friends over to the blue side with me as I can because they have all been feeling abandoned by the party. I think another important space to focus on for potential voters is…...mothers. I’m a mom of kiddos 10 and under. The majority of my friends are as well. And we loooooove our kids’ schools and teachers. I’ve never seen a singular issue unite so many people around me. This voucher fight with the Christian Nationalists has made a lot of people look up and finally pay attention!