I’m going to use the Erik Manning Spreadsheet, the Patrick Svitek spreadsheet, and the Secretary of State webpage to put together some notes and observations about the 2024 filing deadline and primary lineups. Note that some of this may still change, as data from county parties may still be coming in and there’s always someone who withdraws or gets disqualified at the last minute. We’ll do the best we can with what we have.
– Eight candidates are listed for the Democratic primary for US Senate, including Colin Allred, Roland Gutierrez, and Carl Sherman. Notably absent is Mark Gonzalez, former Nueces County DA who resigned his office to run for this office. I don’t see any news about him that suggests he changed his mind, and his webpage and Facebook page are both still up, so this may be a case of a delay in reporting. That said, neither his Facebook page nor his Twitter account have posted anything since November 10, so maybe that means something. I’ll keep checking on this. Delays in reporting who has filed are normal, we may not be fully certain of who has or has not filed for what until Friday.
– Lizzie Fletcher, Veronica Escobar (CD16), Sheila Jackson Lee, Jasmine Crockett (CD30), and Lloyd Doggett (CD37) have primary opponents. We’ve talked about SJL and Fletcher and their opponents (a third person named Robert Slater also filed in CD18), I know much less about the others. I don’t get the sense these are serious, but we’ll look at the January finance reports and see if there’s anything there. One person who gets to take it easy for the next couple of months is Henry Cuellar in CD28. Jessica Cisneros decided against a third challenge, and no one else appears to have filed.
– Eight people have filed for the open CD32 seat, including Julie Johnson and Brian Williams. Again, there may be some reporting delays. The two Republican open seats are CDs 12 and 26, and Dems have two filers in the former and one in the latter.
– The single biggest gap on the Democratic side as far as filings go are in the statewide judicial elections, where two of the three Supreme Court incumbents have Dem opponents but none of the Court of Criminal Appeals incumbents do. Filing for statewide judicial office is complicated because you have to collect signatures in all of the appellate districts. I’ll hold off on any conclusions until the weekend, but I am definitely watching this. (See Update below, three of the four races that didn’t have Dems listed for them originally now do. And we still may not be done.)
– There are now six candidates in the SD15 primary, as Michelle Bonton and Beto Cardenas hopped in on Monday. Bonton was a candidate for At Large #5 in 2019, and Cardenas is an attorney with some connections. I’m going to have to do so many interviews in the next two months…
– Three Democrats in the State House in Harris County drew primary opponents: Harold Dutton, Shawn Thierry, and Hubert Vo. All of the countywide executive offices have multiple candidates. Looks like a bit less than half of the judicial incumbents have primary opponents. There are three new District Criminal Court benches, all of which now have Abbott appointees on them, a new County Criminal Court and a new County Probate Court; those last two are open.
– All four Democratic Constables have primary opponents; there are two open Constable spots, in the Republican-held Precinct 5 and the Dem-held Precinct 7, and they both have multiple Dem candidates. Jo Ann Delgado in Precinct 2 is the only Dem Justice of the Peace to draw a primary challenger. Dems did not field a candidates for JP in Precinct 5 or for Constable in Precinct 8.
– HCDE At Large Position #3 incumbent Richard Cantu did file for re-election as noted yesterday, and he is opposed by Josh Wallenstein. HCDE Position 6 Precinct 1 has an incumbent whose name (John F. McGee), which says to me that Danny Norris must have resigned prior to filing against Harold Dutton. McGee also has an opponent, Richard Bonton, who was accused of being involved in the “Natasha Ruiz” incident from 2020. Looks like I need to pay a little more attention to this HCDE race.
– Though there were some rumors floating around during the filing period, HCDP Chair Mike Doyle appears to be unopposed.
I’ll have further updates when some of these filings have been clarified. The Trib, the Fort Worth Report, the San Antonio Report, and El Paso Matters have good roundups around the state.
UPDATE: This morning I see that two candidates have filed for the third Supreme Court seat, and two of the three CCA incumbents now have Democratic opponents. So much better there. Mark Gonzalez now shows up for the Senate race. Mark Veasey in CD33 now has a primary opponent listed. Still more to come, I’m sure.
Christine Weems is an excellent Harris County district judge who has filed for Texas Supreme Court, Place 4. She would be a great addition to the Texas Supreme Court–smart, principled, and collegial. Hope she gets a chance to add some ideological diversity to the Court. https://www.weemsforjudge.com/biography
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