I told you it was going to be a long primary season for Harris County Republicans this year. And Gov. Greg Abbott just made it far more, shall we say, interesting with his endorsement of Rep. Sarah Davis’ primary opponent. No only did he endorse her, his campaign paid for the video.
Several questions quickly come to mind about Abbott’s endorsement of her opponent. How good will the Gov. be at playing kingmaker? I mean, he hasn’t exactly set the world on fire with his governing skills but he is a heck of a campaigner and fund raiser.
And what does it do to the overall Republican campaign in Harris County. Republicans are fortunate to have County Judge Ed Emmett leading the local ticket but Emmett is supporting Davis.
https://twitter.com/SarahforHD134/status/929815446962016256
Don’t forget that the Abbott campaign was a huge part of the success Republicans in Harris County had in 2014. With the top of the statewide ticket and the top of the local ticket fighting in HD134, does that affect the dynamics of the county strategy?
And just what does Sarah Davis think about this turn of events? When she first ran as a libertarian tea party type in 2010, she was a very different candidate than she is now. She is still free spirited but has aligned herself squarely with what is commonly described as ‘the establishment’ and is increasingly isolated from Harris County Republican activists, other than those in the identity groups and social issue groups that she supports, which is a very small percentage of Republican primary voters. Does this move by Abbott push her into switching parties?
I asked a very well respected consultant about that and she doesn’t think so because she claims that the district is still a Republican district on the whole and that Davis will still be the favorite to win.
Oh, and about that resolution to censure Davis, the sponsor of it says he isn’t going to make a motion to go forward with it. In other words, he’s trying to put the cat back in the bag. We’ll see how that works tonight.
“When she first ran as a libertarian tea party type in 2010, she was a very different candidate than she is now.”
Another way of saying that is misrepresented herself to the voters in a wave year and hasn’t been challenged since. See Marco Rubio for a national example.
Perhaps. And perhaps she changed a bit when she got there, as most do.
As for Rubio, not only did he win reelection, he won the primary in HD134. Maybe you are on to something.
DJ
No she has been challenged every cycle in the primary, by Bonnie Parker and opponents whose names I have forgotten. And won.
The resolution to censure never came up tonight, meeting was adjourned. Several “nut jobs” were passing around ratings charts but none were verified and none had the question or data. Basically the same thing happened that happened in other races.
No, these were not nut jobs, but mostly folks from outside the district who do not understand how different the electorate is there. Most of the scorecards do not list the votes upon which they rely in a manner that they can be evaluated for fairness.
Sarah reflects her district – educated, fiscal conservative and socially moderate. Every cycle there is a far right wing challenger and every time Sarah wins bigly.
The Democrats have been unable to put forward a viable alternative in any of the elections also.
Until that happens– Sarah stays Republican and stays rep for HD 134.