Gina Ortiz Jones
Democrat Gina Ortiz Jones conceded Monday in her challenge to U.S. Rep. Will Hurd, R-Helotes, ensuring a third term for Hurd in his perennial battleground district.
“While we came up short this time, we ran a race of which we can be proud,” Jones said in a statement. “I remain committed to serving my community and country, and I wish Will Hurd the courage to fight for TX-23 in the way in which our district deserves.”
Her statement comes nearly two weeks after the election. Hurd has consistently led Jones by roughly 1,000 votes or more out of about 209,000 cast, but she had been holding out hope and pushing to make sure all outstanding ballots were counted.
Jones had been particularly concerned with provisional ballots, or ballots that were cast when there was a question about a voter’s eligibility. Last week, Jones’ campaign went to court to try to force Bexar County to hand over a list of such voters before the Tuesday deadline for them to resolve their issues. The campaign also sought a 48-hour extension of that deadline. Both requests were denied.
More recently, Jones’ campaign had turned its attention to Medina County, which had been set to canvass its results Thursday but postponed the decision until Monday morning due to an unclear issue. Jones’ concession came after Medina County completed the rescheduled canvass.
As I’ve said before, if you had told me a few months ago that two of the CD 07/23/32 trio would go Democratic but not the third, I would have ranked the “CD23 remains Republican” as by far the least likely to occur. You have to hand it to Will Hurd, who has now ridden out two very tough elections in which he was a top target. I just get the feeling that no one – well, no one outside of Will Hurd’s campaign team – understands this district. The polling we had was way off base. Democrats made huge strides forward all around the state, yet in the one district drawn to be a tossup they couldn’t move the ball the two or three points needed to win. Maybe this district is just fundamentally different than the others. Maybe the turnout here didn’t skew as Democratic as you might have expected, but could be there in 2020. Maybe the Beto-and-Hurd road show from early in the year gave Hurd enough cover with indies and soft Dems. Maybe Ortiz Jones just couldn’t seal the deal. Who knows? What I do know is that we need to figure it out, because CD23 is still the best pickup opportunity for 2020, even if it’s no longer the only one. I thank Gina Ortiz Jones for her candidacy, and I hope we can build on it next time.
Wonder how Beto did with the Republicans in that area? Did he benefit from the Hurd/Beto tour?
The story of CD 23 might just be this.. 2018 in Texas was about suburban/urban voters with higher education levels revolting against the GOP. I think that CD 23 just doesnt have enough of those voters relative to other target districts. Hurd portrayed himself as more amenable to the concerns of that demographic, and that traditional minority and Republican voters basically cane out in equal numbers relative to 2016. In the end, it was just enough for him to hang on. The new Dem majority will force Hurd into votes that will make him confirm that moderate reputation. And in a Presidential year, expect higher turnout. Hurd won because his district is fundamentally different than the other districts that are swinging to the left.
I will mildly surprised if she doesnt go for it again in 2020.
Who cares?
Her banking and healthcare ideas on her website were remedial, just like MJ Hegar’s
Her campaign was, i am… a democrat, veteran, woman. Vote for me.
*snore*
Joe, her ideas may be remedial, but she came a lot closer to being elected than you ever will, since most people don’t give a crap about ideas spouted on a website. Especially ideas that violate the law or are completely unworkable. Have you considered joining the Peace Corps for a decade or two, in some remote part of Africa? No websites to worry about there.
Employers could stop begging me to return to low wage jobs while the 4th largest city begs me to run in at-large 5 just so workers can get better benefits and pay.
I don’t see any other pussy millenialls writing dozens/hundreds of ideas for the 4th largest city.
I figured it out in 2013, let’s see if houston can figure it out in 2019.
Joe if you put your name in that race, I may put mine in there also and no ideas. Bet I get more votes;-)
I’ve already dug through logistics companies linkedin and social media.
They’d have to offer their full time US employees $10k in adoption assistance and 12 weeks of paid parental leave with 75% pay after one year.
If their hr departments can’t figure out how to offer federal tax write offs after a year like their much smaller competitors. Maybe they should hire smarter hr departments?
Until then I can teach myself medicine on my iphone, make fun of city and county leaders on social media while the 4th largest city pretends to ignore my houston city council campaign.