The Trib highlights a couple of races of interest.
Senate District 8
State Sen. Van Taylor, R-Plano, has not yet announced he’s running for Congress — he is expected to after the special session — but the race to replace him is already underway. Phillip Huffines, the chairman of the Dallas County GOP who has been campaigning for the Senate seat since March, put $2 million of his own money into his campaign and raised another $547,000, leaving him with $2.4 million in the bank. State Rep. Matt Shaheen, the Plano Republican who is likely to run for the Senate seat but has not yet made it official, had $495,000 cash on hand after raising $62,000 at the end of June and loaning himself $187,000 in June.
Senate District 10
State Sen. Konni Burton, R-Colleyville, already has two Democratic challengers in her battleground district, where she has a $352,000 war chest after raking in $196,000 at June’s end. One of her Democratic foes, Beverly Powell, raised $50,000 in just under a month and has $32,000 in the bank. Powell’s cash-on-hand figure is closer to $46,000 when factoring in online donations she received at the end of June, according to her campaign. Another Democratic candidate, Alison Campolo, posted smaller numbers.
Senate District 16
State Sen. Don Huffines, R-Dallas, is also on Democrats’ target list for 2018. He reported raising $222,000 at the end of June and having $930,000 in cash on hand. One of his Democratic rivals, Nathan Johnson, began his campaign in early April and has since raised $80,000, giving him a $65,000 cash-on-hand tally. Another Democratic candidate, Joseph Bogen, kicked off his bid in May and had raised $32,000 by the end of June. He has $21,000 in cash on hand.
Do I have finance reports for Senate districts and candidates of interest? Of course I do.
Van Taylor
Matt Shaheen
Phillip Huffines
Texans for Kelly Hancock
Konni Burton
Beverly Powell
Alison Campolo
Don Huffines
Nathan Johnson
Joe Bogen
Texans for Joan Huffman
Dist Name Raised Spent Loans On Hand
===========================================================
SD08 Taylor 1,000 191,355 850,000 370,852
SD08 Shaheen 61,835 7,633 466,844 495,310
SD08 P Huffines 546,656 202,474 2,000,000 2,356,109
SD09 Hancock 87,655 86,634 0 1,205,070
SD10 Burton 196,058 49,152 240,000 351,787
SD10 Powell 51,200 1,265 0 31,704
SD10 Campolo 8,004 5,163 0 3,604
SD16 D Huffines 222,297 151,336 1,680,000 929,698
SD16 Johnson 80,260 14,851 5,286 64,728
SD16 Bogen 31,988 4,010 0 21,118
SD17 Huffman 10,025 54,606 0 410,465
Here’s my look at State Senate precinct data, with an eye towards evaluating potential electoral targets for 2018. The three of greatest interest are SDs 10, 16, and 17, more or less in that order. We’ve met the SD10 hopefuls, but this is the first I’ve heard of challengers in SD16. Here’s Nathan Johnson‘s webpage, and here’s Joe Bogen‘s. I don’t know anything more about either of them than that, so if you do please feel free to speak up. As for SD17, I sure hope Fran Watson or someone like her makes her entry soon, because right now the only opponent for Joan Huffman is Ahmad Hassan.
I live near SD16 and there is a lot of overlap with Pete Sessions CD32. Huffines has the family name from Car dealerships and homebuilding, and has tons of money. He has pissed off bi-partisan education types, but he still will be tough to beat. D statewides in 2016 lost by between 7-12 points as Clinton was beating Trump in this district.
The affluent precincts in North Dallas, Far North Dallas, and most of Lake Highlands are slowly becoming less red, but are still red. Park Cities and lesser extent Coppell, are the last GOP strongholds in Dallas County. There will be at least 3-5 competitive state house races that fall within SD16, plus DCCC involvement in CD32 if its still in play. Not sure if the Dems running can raise the money to make and keep it competitive, but I applaud them for getting in.
SD8-Lots of moderate Rs in this district but still very R. The tea party/hardliners have more voters in the primary than the establishment. Should be interesting as Shaheen is pretty conservative. Not that much room to the right of him for Phil Huffines to go to, but like his twin brother, he has tons of money.