PREVIOUSLY:
Harris County offices
City of Houston
Senate and Congress
I wasn’t going to do a state office roundup – there are no Democratic state officeholders, the races of interest won’t have candidates for several months, etc – but I decided that to be consistent with my message about our elected officials needing to want to win at least as much as we do, I should check in on what the ones from this area have in the bank. So let’s take a look.
Carol Alvarado – SD06
Borris Miles – SD13
Molly Cook – SD15
Ron Reynolds – HD27
Suleman Lalani – HD76
Alma Allen – HD131
Ann Johnson – HD134
Jon Rosenthal – HD135
Gene Wu – HD137
Charlene Ward Johnson – HD139
Armando Walle – HD140
Senfronia Thompson – HD141
Harold Dutton – HD142
Ana Hernandez – HD143
Mary Ann Perez – HD144
Christina Morales – HD145
Lauren Ashley Simmons – HD146
Jolanda Jones – HD147
Penny Shaw – HD148
Hubert Vo – HD149
Dist Name Raised Spent Loans On Hand
============================================================
SD06 Alvarado 198,580 61,686 0 1,564,381
SD13 Miles 100,383 105,774 492,756 22,107
SD15 Cook 94,178 48,221 0 155,853
HD27 Reynolds 29,390 24,459 40,910 34,574
HD76 Lalani 48,975 115,458 0 151,235
HD131 Allen 13,290 10,876 0 67,125
HD134 Johnson 220,340 32,237 0 527,021
HD135 Rosenthal 66,885 42,823 0 66,763
HD137 Wu 138,467 116,773 10,000 123,609
HD139 Johnson 50,760 22,687 15,000 26,059
HD140 Walle 146,872 93,909 0 267,898
HD141 Thompson 251,831 90,222 0 1,032,927
HD142 Dutton 48,800 16,959 0 148,761
HD143 Hernandez 157,510 33,586 0 448,309
HD144 Perez 77,679 33,040 0 211,703
HD145 Morales 45,639 41,259 5,000 61,067
HD146 Simmons 68,314 65,277 0 86,488
HD147 Jones 46,654 22,110 0 118,195
HD148 Shaw 17,974 13,787 0 0
HD149 Vo 22,600 23,935 0 100,998
New Senator Molly Cook had to win or place in five elections last year, so for her to come out of all that with $155K on hand is pretty good. I expect her to be a force, and I look forward to seeing what she can do in an election year with having the office of State Senator behind her. Sen. Borris Miles has been more of a self-funder than fundraiser, so while his cash on hand total is kind of shocking, it’s not really surprising. There are also persistent rumors about his possible retirement due to health concerns, which would also be consistent with his financial showing. I’ll get to Sen. Alvarado in a minute.
It’s not a surprise that a longtime icon like Rep. Senfronia Thompson would be a good fundraiser and have a decent amount in the bank. It’s also not out of order to wonder what that money is for. I can’t recall even a minor league challenge to her since I’ve been paying close attention to electoral politics. To be blunt, she doesn’t need that much money, and she really should be using some of it to help the greater Democratic cause. And at the risk of being even more indelicate, she just turned 86 years old. I hope she has a plan for what to do with this money in the near-to-medium term future.
The Over 80 caucus also includes Reps. Alma Allen and, as of this month, Harold Dutton. I have tremendous respect for the work that Reps. Allen and Thompson have done – let’s just say Rep. Dutton has some good things and some very not good things on his ledger and leave it at that – but Father Time comes for us all. Rep. Allen has had mostly token challengers in the past few cycles, while Rep. Dutton has had some more serious and less serious challengers. It would be nice to have one of the more serious challengers for him in 2026, but that means recruitment should be going on now, and that person needs to do a lot of ground work. Money will only get you so far in HD142.
We’ve talked plenty about the 2024 election numbers in HD144 and what that means for Rep. Mary Ann Perez, who was unopposed last November and was not a visible presence in the overall campaign. She has a few bucks in the bank, and she’s going to need a lot more because she’s going to be a top Republican target if they’re not complete idiots. I will note that her colleagues, Reps. Ana Hernandez and Armando Walle, are both also good fundraisers who had little to do and thus did little in last year’s election. They also saw some slippage in the Democratic performance of their districts, enough that if I were an opportunistic Republican strategist I’d be busily recruiting in their neighborhoods as well, not so much with the idea of winning those races but of raising the tide for their ticket overall as they try to win some countywide races. I would VERY VERY MUCH like to see those three, plus Sen. Alvarado, whose district overlaps them all, be a lot more active on the ground, on the air, on the Internet, and wherever else they think they can contribute next year. They’re good legislators, they vote right and represent their districts well. I like them all. I’m just asking to see more of them going forward. We need all the help we can get.
Rep. Penny Morales Shaw also needs to be looking ahead to 2026, though she starts out as someone who has been more visible on the trail. Her report had a blank for the “cash on hand” field, so I don’t know what she actually has. I have faith she will rise to the challenge.
Overall we have a pretty good Democratic legislative caucus in Harris and Fort Bend Counties. There’s a lot of talent and some exciting newcomers – keep an eye on Reps. Lauren Simmons and Sulemon Lalani – and we have the potential to add to their numbers, and maybe eventually expand to Brazoria County and who knows from there. Getting good recruits in HDs 26 and 138 at a bare minimum is vital. If you have a Democratic State Rep and/or State Senator, now is a good time to be calling their office and telling them what you want to see from them. Not just over the next couple of months, where the best we can hope for is to make some terrible bills slightly less bad, but going forward from there. Say it with me now, we need to win more elections. These folks need to be at the forefront of that.