Another open seat for the Republicans to defend.
Rep. Dwayne Bohac
State Rep. Dwayne Bohac, R-Houston, announced Wednesday he is not seeking reelection.
Bohac won reelection last year by just 47 votes, and his retirement gives Democrats a ripe pickup opportunity as they push to flip the House in 2020.
“It is time for me to focus on my family, new callings in my life, and allow someone else the opportunity to have the honor to represent our community in the Texas Legislature,” Bohac said in a statement.
Bohac has served in the House since 2003.
Democrats are 10 seats removed from the House majority. That number is nine if they hold on to a vacant seat in a November special election as expected.
Two Democrats, Akilah Bacy and Josh Wallenstein, have already launched bids for Bohac’s House District 138 in 2020. The Democrat who gave Bohac a close call in 2018, Adam Milasincic, decided in April not to run again and gave his support to Bacy, a Houston attorney.
As we know, after that razor-thin victory by Bohac in 2018, HD138 is at the tippy-top of the Democratic target list for 2020. Beto got 52.7% in HD138, with Mike Collier and Justin Nelson and Kim Olson also taking a majority there. There were only three other districts in which Beto got a higher percentage and the Republican incumbent held on. One could credibly say that Dwayne Bohac overperformed in 2018, which is how he managed to stay in office. Republicans won’t have that advantage this time around.
Bohac didn’t have much cash on hand, so he won’t have much to bestow to whoever runs in his stead. I feel pretty confident that there will be plenty of money spent on this race. Sorry, Harris County GOP. Your to-do list for 2020 just got longer. The Chron has more.
UPDATE: Republican State Rep. Mike Lang also announced his retirement. Lang’s HD60 went 83% for Ted Cruz in 2018, so not exactly a pickup opportunity.
Re: Mike Lang…. “Leading by example is the only way we will win the war against the Democrats,” Lang said. “The front lines are not in DC or Austin; it’s in our backyard.”
What happened to the good ole days when your platform centered around what good you could accomplish for your constituents, not how you waged war against your rival political parties ? #Sad
I’ll be glad to see both Lang and Bohac vamoose.
I’ll give Mr. Milasincic credit for working hard, even though he didn’t win; I lived in 138 for 11 of the past 17 years with Bohac as rep, and last year was the only time a Democratic candidate has visited my house personally. My vote against Bohac when he was first elected was one of the first I ever made. We ceded that district to Bohac for way too long, and I’m glad he sees the writing on the wall.