Pete Gallego
A congressional rematch may be nigh in southwest Texas.
National Democrats still reeling from their midterm clobbering are intent on picking up seats in 2016, and their eyes already are on Texas’ only competitive congressional district, the 23rd.
U.S. Rep. Will Hurd, R-San Antonio, won the seat by a mere 2,422 votes last November. The Democrats’ top recruit is the man Hurd ousted – former U.S. Rep. Pete Gallego, D-Alpine – and the sense in Washington is that more likely than not, he’ll jump into the campaign.
The head of House Democratic campaign efforts said as much in a Tuesday statement.
“We’re excited about his potential candidacy, and confident that he would run a strong campaign with the tailwinds of a more favorable electorate in 2016 at his back,” said Rep. Ben Ray Lujan of New Mexico.
About a week after the election, Democrats floated Gallego as a top recruit, and the one-term congressman did not rule out a rematch in a Tuesday phone interview.
“Everyone that I’ve talked to, Republican and Democrats, think that [there will be a] different electorate in 2016, and I don’t know anyone who thinks that the last election was a referendum on me or my performance as a congressman,” he said. “But having said that, it’s a little early.”
“I haven’t gotten to that bridge yet, but I will cross that bridge when I get there,” he added.
See here for the background. Gallego has outperformed the Democratic baseline in both of his elections in CD23. If he does that again in 2016, he’d be very likely to win. Hurd may be able to cut into that advantage as the incumbent, but then it may be the case that Hillary Clinton carries CD23 and Gallego wins anyway. Be that as it may, it is too early to think about this stuff. We’ll have plenty of time to obsess over this stuff after this year’s election.