Sen. Royce West
Royce West is one step closer to running against Republican incumbent Sen. John Cornym.
The Dallas Democrat has announced a news conference for July 22, where he’s widely expected to launch a campaign for Senate. The longtime state senator would join a Democratic Party primary that already includes former Air Force helicopter pilot MJ Hegar of Round Rock and former U.S. Rep. Chris Bell of Houston. And Houston council member Amanda Edwards is considering mounting a campaign as well.
[…]
West, 66, has hinted at a campaign against Cornyn for months, but has not officially gotten into the race.
He’ll make an announcement at 10 a.m., July 22 and Democratic Party headquarters in Dallas, according to a sign-up link on a website he’s developed for the occasion.
West has represented Texas Senate District 23 since 1993. He’s also a prominent Dallas attorney and one of the leading Democratic Party voices in the state.
See here and here for the background. As the story notes, the field now includes Chris Bell, with Amanda Edwards still on the periphery. I don’t know what if any timetable Edwards has beyond the late August filing deadline for Houston races, but I do know that another candidate for Edwards’ Council seat has emerged (*), so perhaps the consensus opinion is that this is about to be an open seat. My guess is that with West more or less formally in, we’ll hear something one way or the other from Edwards soon. But I’ve also been guessing that for awhile now, so take it with a sufficient quantity of salt.
(*) In the spirit of disclosure, AL #4 candidate Tiko Reynolds-Hausman is a friend of mine. I’ve served on two PTA boards with her, and her daughter and our elder daughter have been classmates and friends for years.
Lemme see. Gromer has a breathless presser disguised as a news story that Royce is going to say something unknown 12 days after Gromer writes said piece and everybody, starting with Gromer, says “he’s running”?
Really? Then why is he waiting another 12 days.
Oh, and her name is Sema. I know Gromer consistently refuses to mention her name, too, and keeps getting called out by me on Twitter, as he did on the first two paragraphs of this.