I’m putting Part 1 in the headline because there’s always some delays between filings at county headquarters and what you can see on the SOS candidate filings page. I was waiting on the Jasmine Crockett announcement as I began this, and I put it in a separate post when it broke. There’s been a few items of interest already and that’s what this post is for. Lone Star Left has been tracking filings all along, so refer to their resources as well if you’re confused about a particular race.
The news kicked off with Colin Allred’s announcement that he was dropping out of the Senate race to run in CD33.
Allred, a former Dallas congressman, was the party’s nominee for Senate in 2024, losing to Sen. Ted Cruz. In July, he launched a 2026 bid for Texas’ other Senate seat, but his path to the nomination was complicated by the September entry of state Rep. James Talarico, D-Austin, and an expected run from U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett, a fellow Dallasite who is hosting an announcement event later Monday.
Allred’s swerve came on the last day for candidates to file for Texas’ 2026 primaries. In a statement, he said he was deciding to exit the Senate race because he wanted the party to avoid a runoff — a likely outcome if Crockett decided to run — and maximize its chances of winning in November. The nominee will face the winner of a three-way GOP primary between U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, Attorney General Ken Paxton and U.S. Rep. Wesley Hunt of Houston.
“In the past few days, I’ve come to believe that a bruising Senate Democratic primary and runoff would prevent the Democratic Party from going into this critical election unified against the danger posed to our communities and our Constitution by Donald Trump and one of his Republican bootlickers Paxton, Cornyn, or Hunt,” Allred said. “That’s why I’ve made the difficult decision to end my campaign for the U.S. Senate.”
Instead, Allred said he will run for Congress in Texas’ newly drawn 33rd Congressional District, one of two winnable seats left for Democrats in the Dallas-Fort Worth metro area after the U.S. Supreme Court last week allowed the state to use a new GOP-friendly map crafted earlier this year. The district contains about a third of the residents from Allred’s former congressional district, which he represented for six years after flipping the seat in 2018.
Texas’ 33rd District is currently represented by U.S. Rep. Marc Veasey, but the new boundaries remove his hometown and political base of Fort Worth. He plans to run instead for the 30th District — currently represented by Crockett — if she gets into the Senate race as expected, a source familiar with the matter told the Tribune.
To capture the 33rd District, Allred will need to defeat his successor, Rep. Julie Johnson, a former state lawmaker who won the race to replace Allred when he gave up his seat to run for Senate in 2024. Johnson has represented the 32nd Congressional District since January, but the district was dismantled by Republicans in their mid-decade redistricting this summer. Now, both Allred and Johnson are running in the new 33rd Congressional District — an amalgamation of three current Democratic seats in the Metroplex.
That primary for CD33 could get nasty, which was a big part of the Republicans’ goals in doing the map again. Making Dems fight among themselves while also making the bench smaller are gains for them even if they fall short in the number of seats they pick up in Congress.
Also changing race is Sen. Sarah Eckhardt:
State Sen. Sarah Eckhardt, D-Austin, on Monday announced she was no longer running for Congress and would instead run for state comptroller.
The pivot, coming on the last day to file for Texas’ 2026 primaries, ends Eckhardt’s roughly monthlong campaign for the 10th Congressional District, a Republican-leaning seat that is being vacated by Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Austin. Eckhardt has served in the Texas Senate since 2020 and was reelected in 2024, meaning she will retain her seat if she loses the comptroller race. Democrats have not won a statewide election in Texas since 1994.
At least one other Democrat has filed for comptroller: Michael Lange, an investment manager who unsuccessfully sought the Democratic nomination for land commissioner in 2022.
If elected, Eckhardt said she wants to tackle government waste and fraud as a watchdog of the state’s $337 billion budget — one of the comptroller’s main responsibilities. She pointed to her experience as Travis County judge, during which she said she delivered balanced budgets, as proof she’s the best candidate for the job.
The state comptroller collects more than a quarter trillion dollars of revenue from a variety of taxes, fees and assessments. The office is also tasked with rolling out the state’s new school voucher program to offer parents public funds to pay for private school and educational materials. Eckhardt said she would seek to apply oversight to the program.
“We don’t have time for funny business and sweetheart deals that benefit the powerful and not the people,” Eckhardt said in a statement. “We need a Comptroller who will work to ensure every dollar is used in the best interest of everyday Texans, and who is not afraid to expose state leaders when they refuse to play by the rules and deliver affordability.”
Comptroller is an often-overlooked office, also often one in which Dems have done the worst statewide, but it is one with a lot more power now. Not just the voucher scam, but the Comptroller is the enforcer of the various bullshit anti-DEI and ESG laws that Texas has been passing. There’s a lot of potential to at least mitigate damage, if not do good, if we can win this one.
Also changing offices, which I found while scrolling the filings page: Erstwhile candidate for Governor Benjamin Flores is now running for Land Commissioner. I’m good with that.
I will also do a roundup on Harris County later, as there’s often some last-minute maneuvering. For Congress, so far we have two candidates for CD08, four for CD09 (including astronaut and former Senate candidate Terry Virts), four for CD18 (current CD09 Rep. Al Green, CD18 special election finalists Christian Menefee and Amanda Edwards, and someone named Gretchen Brown), three for CD22, two for CD36, and three for CD38. Rep. Lizzie Fletcher is unopposed in CD07, which will be my new Congressional home, while former State Rep. Jarvis Johnson is running against Rep. Sylvia Garcia in CD29. Challenger Shaun Finnie in CD02 also appears to have the primary to himself.
So far four incumbent State Reps have drawn primary challengers – Reps. Charlene Ward Johnson (HD139), Harold Dutton (HD142), Mary Ann Perez (HD144), and Hubert Vo (149), while at least four people have filed in the open HD131. For county offices, a third candidate named Matt Salazar has filed for County Judge along with Annise Parker and Letitia Plummer, it’s still a two way race for County Attorney between Abbie Kamin and Audrie Lawton Evans, and there’s a bunch of people running for District Clerk. County Clerk Teneshia Hudspeth and County Treasurer Carla Wyatt were as yet unchallenged, as were County Commissioners Adrian Garcia and Leslie Briones.
That’ll do for now, by the time I’m finishing up any further news can wait. More to come as the stories get written.
UPDATE: I stand corrected about there not being late news for me to note here.
In a last-minute political maneuver, Fort Worth Democrat Marc Veasey is running for Tarrant County judge instead of reelection to Congress.
Veasey, who was elected to the U.S. House in 2012, was expected to announce he was running for District 30 after Texas’ redrawn congressional maps pushed his current District 33 entirely into Dallas County. Many speculated he would seek Rep. Jasmine Crockett’s District 30 seat as she announced plans to run for the U.S. Senate.
The congressman’s staff confirmed to the Fort Worth Report that he filed for the county judge race. He is set to face County Commissioner Alisa Simmons and business owner Lydia Bean in the March primary to determine the Democratic nominee. Republican incumbent Tim O’Hare is seeking his second term and will face precinct chair Robert Buker in the primary election.
Veasey’s filing, minutes before the state’s 6 p.m. deadline for candidates to file their candidacy for political office in the March primary, was unexpected as political observers watched news around Crockett’s drawn-out announcement, which she timed for late on the day of filing.
But drama came earlier in the day when Dallas minister Frederick Haynes III, leader of Friendship-West Baptist Church, entered the race for District 30. His mega-church has about 13,000 members, including Crockett.
The twist of Veasey leaving Congress left political experts surprised.
“He was in a difficult situation,” said Mark Jones, a political science professor at Rice University. “Veasey is associated with Tarrant County, and that’s a Dallas-dominated district. He believed he would not have an advantage in the district and the African-American electorate would not support him but Haynes.”
Both Veasey and Haynes are Black, and the district is predominantly Black.
However, Haynes lives in the district while Veasey does not. District 30 largely covers much of southern Dallas County, which includes the church, and only a small portion includes Tarrant County.
“Crockett, in some ways, put Veasey in a difficult situation,” Jones said.
I’m sad to see Rep. Veasey exit Congress, but again that was a big part of the Republican plan.
I got gerrymandered from TX-22 to 9. Glad to see Dem challengers filing in both.