VALDEZ LEADS DEMOCRATIC BID TO FACE GOV. ABBOTT IN NOVEMBER
Former Dallas County Sheriff Lupe Valdez was leading Houston investor Andrew White in early returns for the Democratic nomination for Texas governor. But the race appeared likely to go to a May 22 runoff. The winner will face Gov. Greg Abbott in November. Abbott had no serious GOP rival as he seeks a second term.
The Valdez and White campaigns embody the competing strategies being employed by Democrats as they seek to harness anti-Trump energy.
Lupe Valdez, the former Dallas County sheriff who grew up in San Antonio the youngest of eight children in a family of migrant workers, and Andrew White, who spent his early adolescence growing up in the Texas Governor’s Mansion, the son of Gov. Mark White, appeared headed for a runoff in the Democratic gubernatorial primary Tuesday.
The rest of the Democratic vote was divided among seven other candidates: Adrian Ocegueda, Cedric Davis Sr., Grady Yarbrough, James Jolly Clark, Jeffrey Payne, Joe Mumbach and Tom Wakely.
If no candidate receives a majority of the votes in the primary, the winner will be determined in a May 22 contest between the top two finishers.
The winner will face Gov. Greg Abbott, who was receiving roughly nine out of 10 votes in the Republican primary Tuesday.
Abbott faced two candidates — Larry SECEDE Kilgore, who legally changed his middle name to make plain his support for Texas secession from the United States, and Barbara Krueger, a retired teacher from Plano.
Either Valdez, who pursued a career in corrections and law enforcement before first being elected sheriff in 2004, or White, a Houston entrepreneur and investor, would face long odds against Abbott, who won his first term in 2014, defeating state Sen. Wendy Davis of Fort Worth by 20 percentage points.
But Abbott strategist David Carney said that, unlike four years ago, Republicans in Texas will be confronting political headwinds in a midterm election in which Republicans control the U.S. House, U.S. Senate and the White House. President Donald Trump is certain to energize Democratic voters across the country, Carney said.
The Valdez and White campaigns embody the competing strategies being employed by Democrats as they seek to harness anti-Trump energy. Valdez, Hispanic and lesbian, looks to stir the party’s base and rouse the slumbering giant of Latino voter participation. Hispanic Texans still lag far behind both whites and blacks in voter turnout.
White is presenting himself as a middle-of-the-road candidate who can appeal to voters alienated not just by Trump but what he views as the commensurate extremism of Abbott, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and other Texas Republicans, who he believes have turned off many mainstream Republican and independent voters.
Whether it’s White or Valdez, Carney said, “That person is going to do really well. They don’t have to leave their house. In fact they might do better not to leave their house. The energy that is out there wants to go somewhere.”
“That was an easy election,” Carney said of 2014. “This will not be easy.”
But Abbott and his campaign will take nothing for granted. Abbott is a prodigious, record-breaking fundraiser, with $41 million in the bank as of late last month, even after spending $5.7 million so far this year, replenishing his coffers at every opportunity. Even as he has moved to become the dominant political figure in Texas, he has stoked controversy, and spent some of his political and monetary capital backing friendly lawmakers and seeking to defeat three Republican incumbent members of the Texas House — Sarah Davis of Houston, Lyle Larson of San Antonio and Wayne Faircloth of Galveston — who met with his displeasure.
By contrast, as of Feb. 26, White had $944,000 in the bank, and Valdez $57,900.
White, the married father of three, lives in Houston’s Upper Kirby neighborhood.
Valdez lives in Dallas’ Oak Park borough with her partner, Lindsay Browning, a chiropractor who owns Urban Hippie Chiropractic.
Both candidates are virtual unknowns statewide, hobbled by very late starts to their campaign.
While a runoff could exacerbate hard feelings between the candidates, it also would offer the two candidates desperately needed exposure and preparation for a fall campaign.