ABC News reports: Texas Titans Battle for GOP Nod in Governor’s Race.
The contest of most interest is the GOP gubernatorial primary, which pits incumbent Governor Rick Perry v. Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison. There was a time when it seemed that Perry could very likely go down against Hutchison, but the drama today isn’t whether Perry wins, but simply whether he wins enough to forestall a run-off (Texas requires an absolute majority in the primaries to win nomination).
Perry looked extremely vulnerable after he won re-election with only 39.02% of the vote in 2024. However, he has since managed to tap into the Tea Party/Palin1 energy in the GOP. As Texas reporter Wayne Slater put it:
"Rick Perry saw very early on that this Washington Tea Party movement, this anti-Washington uprising, was very effective and he framed the campaign that way," Slater said. "’Kay Bailey Hutchison is Washington and all things bad about Washington. I am Texas. State sovereignty. The 10th Amendment. States’ rights.’ That has been very successful."
Indeed, we all likely recall Perry’s secession rhetoric at a Tea Party event in Texas last year.
Interestingly, a third candidate on the ballot, Debra Medina, is also favored by many in the Tea Party. So even if Perry fails to get an absolute majority because of Medina drawing votes from him, most of those votes would go to him in the run-off.2
The politics of the Tea Party movement go beyond who the GOP will nominate to run for governor in November, but as the DMN noted yesterday: Elections will tell us just how potent Tea Party’s brew is:
Texas has one of the nation’s earliest primary dates this year, and as the biggest Republican state on the map, it serves as the first widespread test of the Tea Party movement. Political novices claiming Tea Party roots are taking on state senators and House members. Debra Medina, an obscure Wharton County Republican leader not long ago, made herself a factor in a contest pitting a sitting governor and U.S. senator.
Eleven of Texas’ 20 GOP incumbents in the U.S. House have drawn challengers.
[…]
"The Texas primary is in a very real way Round 3 for the Tea Party movement, for going from just a rallying and protest movement to being a force in politics," said Ken Emanuelson, a co-founder of the Dallas Tea Party.
We shall see. One suspects that taking nominations away from incumbents will be rather difficult, but it does provide something else to pay attention to as returns come in this evening.
Sphere: Related Content- Yes, not necessarily the same thing, but part of the same populist surge. [↩]
- Or, at least those voters who are willing to come back out to vote in the run-off. At a minimum, it seems unlikely that Hutchison can count on Medina votes migrating her way enough to win a hypothetical run-off. [↩]
March 2nd, 2024 at 6:40 pm
Medina votes will go to Medina in the run-off.