To switch one of many greatest coverage wonks in Texas’ congressional delegation, Republicans ignored a protracted listing of political insiders and selected former MLB participant Mark Teixeira.
With votes nonetheless coming in, Teixeira was taking 61.61% of the vote in a 12-way GOP major. He secured the Republican nomination for the deep purple twenty first Congressional District and not using a runoff.
He’ll face Democratic nominee Kristin Hook, a former scientist for the Nationwide Institutes of Well being, in November.
In contrast to incumbent U.S. Rep. Chip Roy (R-Dripping Springs), who spent his profession working for varied Texas GOP leaders earlier than operating for Congress in 2018, Teixeira is new to politics.
He began his profession with the Texas Rangers in 2003, performed 14 seasons {of professional} baseball in Atlanta, Los Angeles and New York earlier than shifting his household again to Texas.
“That is the primary time I’ve run for something. I didn’t run for pupil council as a child. I’ve by no means run for something in my life,” Teixeira advised a gathering of the Younger Republicans of Bexar County on the Magic Time Machine final month.
Whereas {many professional} athletes have used their public voices to push for social progress, Teixeira has spent the final six months making it clear he’s no reasonable.
He defended ICE brokers on social media after the primary civilian was shot in Minnesota, and repeatedly accused Democrats of stealing elections.
Talking to the younger Republican group final month, Teixeira mentioned that the entire candidates in his GOP major agree on “securing the border, rising the financial system, shrinking authorities, reducing taxes, defending life, defending the Second Modification.”
However what units him aside, he mentioned, is his promise to carry fellow Republicans in Congress accountable on social points the place they’ve let Democrats drive the dialog.
Teixeira listed banning organic males from enjoying girls’s sports activities and requiring proof of citizenship to vote as two points he can’t think about {that a} Republican-controlled Home hasn’t tackled but.
“These are two issues that, if I used to be in Congress proper now, I’d be hammering each single day,” he advised the group.
Large footwear to fill
Roy, who’s operating for Lawyer Normal this 12 months as an alternative of reelection, didn’t endorse a successor.
At his personal marketing campaign rally on Monday, Roy joked that between his seven years working for U.S. Sens. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and John Cornyn (R-Texas) earlier than operating for Congress, “I do know the Senate higher than most senators,” and was prepared for a much bigger position.
When Roy introduced his plans to go away the congressional seat, the race to switch him drew many candidates introduced deep political resumes — Trey Trainor twice chaired the FEC and Michael Wheeler was an adviser to the U.S. Small Enterprise Administration.
However Teixeira blew them out of the water by self-funding his marketing campaign to the tune of $2.75 million, one thing GOP leaders hope will maintain their social gathering from having to spend assets defending the district within the normal election.
Within the wake of a Jan. 30 particular election that noticed a deep-red Fort Price state Senate seat swing 31 factors to assist a Democrat in January, Republicans have been desirous to wrap up messy primaries — even in districts that ought to be safely purple.
Within the days after that race, President Donald Trump and nationwide exterior teams just like the Membership for Development got here in to assist Teixeira keep away from a runoff.
Former Bexar GOP chair Kyle Sinclair even ended his marketing campaign to assist Trump’s chosen candidate.
“This race is at an inflection level,” Sinclair mentioned on the time. “The fitting transfer now could be unite behind Mark so we are able to win TX21 and begin governing successfully.”
Contemporary curiosity from Democrats
Democrats have additionally been adjusting their technique to make a play for deep-red seats, and held a discussion board to interview their very own three major candidates in February.
The district stretches from Northwest San Antonio as much as the Hill Nation to tug in among the most conservative elements of the state.
Beneath new boundaries, it will have given Trump 60.2% of its vote in 2024 — just like the way it carried out underneath the prevailing traces.
However redistricting made it a extra San Antonio-centric seat, leaving some native Democrats keen to place up a combat for it in 2026.
On Tuesday, Democrats renominated their 2024 candidate, Hook, a former scientist for the NIH who labored for U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and moved to San Antonio in the course of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Hook was taking 61.53% of the vote in a three-way race with VA trauma therapist Regina Vanburg, who some believed would have extra means to attach with the district’s Hill Nation territory, and retired highschool trainer Gary Taylor.
