TEXAS SENATE
District 25
- Donna Campbell (R)
- Merrie Fox (D)
Analysis: Republican Donna Campbell seeks a fourth term representing State Senate District 25, which stretches from San Antonio to New Braunfels and Boerne through the Hill Country.
Campbell, an emergency room physician and ophthalmologist, faces a challenge from Democrat Merrie Fox. Fox is the executive director of Circle Arts Theatre in New Braunfels. She also worked as a public school teacher and principal for more than 30 years.
TEXAS HOUSE
District 80
- Don Mclaughlin (R)
- Cecilia Castellano (D)
Analysis: Texas House District 80 is a rural South Texas district, running through Pleasanton, Pearsall, Uvlade and parts of Laredo.
The seat opened up after longtime Rep. Tracy King, who represented the district since 1994, announced he would not seek re-election.
Considered one of the most competitive districts in the state, Democrat Cecilia Castellano and Republican Don McLaughlin are running to replace the conservative Democrat.
McLaughlin gained attention after serving as the Uvalde mayor in the wake of the Robb Elementary School shooting that claimed the lives of 19 students and two teachers. He stepped down as mayor to run for the seat. Supported by former president Donald Trump and Gov. Greg Abbott, his priorities are economic growth, border security and strengthening law enforcement. McLaughlin thanked Trump and Abbott for their support.
Castellano said she will “reject vouchers that undermine public education,” and fight to increase teacher pay. She was in the news recently after her home was raided during Attorney General Ken Paxton’s string of home raids of Democratic candidates and Latino activists searching for voter fraud. She was one of several other South Texas Democrats whose homes were raided. She has called for a federal investigation into the raids along with the leadership of LULAC.
Castellano (D) running for HD 80
TPR’s The Source is producing a series of candidate interviews for the 2024 election season. Today we hear from Democrat Cecilia Castellano who is running for HD 80. Former Uvalde Mayor Don Mclaughlin is the Republican in the race. TPR’s “The Source” has invited McLaughlin to come on air and we are working on setting a date for that discussion.
District 116
- Darryl W Crain (R)
- Trey Martinez Fischer (D)
Trey Martinez Fischer seeks a fourth consecutive term representing Texas House District 116, the reliably blue district that spans from downtown San Antonio to the North West Side. He previously served in the seat from 2001 to 2017.
Martinez Fisher is the leader of the House Democratic Caucus.
He faces a Republican challenge from San Antonio minister Darryl W. Crain.
District 117
- Ben Mostyn (R)
- Philip Cortez (D)
Analysis: Philip Cortez seeks his fifth consecutive term representing Texas House District 117, another reliably blue district that covers South and West San Antonio.
The Air Force veteran and former San Antonio City Council member faces Republican Ben Mostyn, an Army veteran and San Antonio real estate agent.
District 118
- John Lujan III (R)
- Kristian Carranza (D)
Analysis: In the Texas House District 118 race, voters will decide between incumbent Republican John Lujan and Democratic challenger Kristian Carranza.
House District 118 spreads across the South and East Sides of Bexar County. It includes San Antonio, Universal City, Elmendorf, Somerset, and other communities. The district had been a stronghold for Democrats until 2016, when a special election saw Republicans gain some footing.
In 2016, Lujan won the seat during a special election but lost in 2018 midterm elections. He ran again in 2021 in another special election for the same district and then earned a subsequent victory in the 2022 midterms.
Lujan is a previous Bexar County Sheriff’s deputy and a former San Antonio firefighter. He now owns a small IT firm.
Kristian Carranza is currently a community organizer. In the past, she has served as regional director with the Democratic National Committee and has served as a field or regional director with various campaigns including Gina Ortiz Jones for Congress as well as Hillary Clinton and Julian Castro during their presidential runs.
In her LinkedIn profile, Carranza said she has spent her career working to elect women to office.
Both candidates have come under fire recently. Lujan said on TPR that he would force a hypothetical daughter to give birth if she became pregnant through an instance of rape. Carranza was accused by the Bexar GOP of using her mother’s Latino last name as a way to curry favor with voters. Carranza had changed her last name from Thompson in 2023.
Listen to both candidates during a recent episode of TPR’s “The Source” from Sept. 26.
District 119
- Brandon J. Grable (R)
- Elizabeth “Liz” Campos (D)
Analysis: Elizabeth “Liz” Campos seeks a third term representing Texas House District 119, a reliably blue district that covers parts of Southern and Eastern San Antonio. Campos faces a challenge from Army veteran and attorney Brandon J. Grable.
District 120
- Barbara Gervin-Hawkins (D)
Analysis: Democrat Barbara Gervin-Hawkins is running unopposed for a fifth term representing Texas House District 120. The educator and construction company owner served in this seat since 2016, which includes parts of San Antonio and Converse and encompasses Windcrest and Kirby.
District 121
- Marc Lahood (R)
- Laurel Jordan Swift (D)
Analysis
Texas HD 121 is one of the few competitive races for the Texas House of Representatives this election. Although the district has long been held by Republicans, including former Speaker of the House Joe Strauss, Republicans have won by slimmer margins over the last decade.
Even though redistricting made the seat slightly more reliably Republican in 2022, State Representative Steve Allison still only won re-election by a 10-point margin two years ago, according to the San Antonio Express-News.
Texas Democrats see an opportunity to flip the seat blue after Allison lost the Republican primary in March. Allison was one of 21 Republican state representatives who voted to block school vouchers last year, which made him a target by Gov. Greg Abbott and pro-voucher groups.
Abbott endorsed 15 challengers in the GOP primaries in a bid to gain the votes he needs to create a voucher-like program that would give families public tax dollars to pay for private school or home school. Eleven of those challengers won their primary, including LaHood in HD 121.
By the governor’s count, the primaries give him a narrow pro-voucher Republican majority, assuming all districts currently held by Republicans stick with the GOP in the general election. Democrats would need to flip three seats in order to block vouchers in the next legislative session. House District 118 is another competitive race in the San Antonio area that Democrats are hoping to flip.
Current HD 121 State Rep. Steve Allison recently said he is supporting Laurel Jordan Swift this election, although he still considers himself a Republican.
Laurel Jordan Swift seeks to flip HD121 blue
State Representative Steve Allison lost in the Republican Primary to Marc LaHood, making the Alamo Heights area House District up for grabs. Laurel Jordan Swift is the Democrat in the race for District 121 that watchers say could be flipped blue on November 5th.
Jordan Swift is a political newcomer who told TPR’s “The Source” that she voted Republican until 2016. “I was raising five kids and working full time, and wasn’t paying super close attention, and everything seemed fine until about that time,” Jordan Swift said. “I started really investigating the issues, and I realized that I really didn’t agree with Republicans as much as I agreed with Democrats. I’m very moderate. I’m in the middle.”
Swift said she is running in part to repeal the state’s strict abortion law. “I don’t think people, even moderate Republicans, realized when that abortion ban took effect, how it would so negatively affect all women and all people,” Jordan Swift told “The Source.” “Even when folks really want their babies, they’re not allowed to get real health care when they’re having a miscarriage.”
Jordan Swift said she believed abortion will be enough for some Republicans to change their vote. “It’s a deal breaker for a lot of people. But then when you pile on vouchers and underfunding public education, [it is a deal breaker],” Jordan Swift said. “And there’s a lot of other things that you can add to that, that people are finally starting to be fed up with.”
Jordan Swift is against school vouchers and believes Texas public schools need more funding.
Republican Marc LaHood made an unsuccessful bid for Bexar County district attorney in 2022. His brother Nico LaHood was Bexar County district attorney from 2014 to 2018.
After he won the Republican primary in March, LaHood said he was confident he could win the general election, despite people telling him he was too conservative for the district.
When “The Source” asked LaHood if he would consider altering the abortion law to protect women in a medical emergency, LaHood said it was first important to decide what is life. “How do we balance out the duty of the government to make sure that we’re providing adequate care to our moms but we’re still following the law?” he explained. He identifies as pro-life.
LaHood was endorsed by Abbott because of his support for vouchers. When asked about the cost of vouchers limiting funding for public schools, LaHood suggested that perhaps public schools already had more money than they need.
When a caller asked about vouchers being insufficient to cover the tuition of many private schools and the impact on public schools, LaHood said he thought public schools would be all right because the voucher would be less than the full cost of each student — a calculation that didn’t entirely make sense and that doesn’t take into account that many families using vouchers in other states had previously never sent their children to public school.
“Going to like a pure business model, the schools aren’t being bankrupted if a child or if a parent chooses to relocate their child to a different school system or homeschool because they’re still receiving $7,500 or more,” LaHood said, claiming that schools in his district have at least $15,000 per student. Texas districts on average have about $10,000 per student.
District 122
- Mark Dorazio (R)
- Kevin Geary (D)
Analysis: Mark Dorazio seeks a second term representing Northwest San Antonio. The former chair of the Bexar County Republican Party faces a challenge from Democrat Kevin Geary, who is an attorney with USAA.
District 123
- Diego Bernal (D)
Analysis: Diego Bernal is running unopposed. Bernal has represented the district that covers downtown to parts of the North Side since he won a special election in 2015.
District 124
- Sylvia Soto (R)
- Josey Garcia (D)
Analysis: Josey Garcia, an Air Force veteran and police reform activist, seeks a second term to represent the reliably blue West Side district. Garcia faces a challenge from Republican Sylvia Soto, who is an NEISD math and science teacher.
District 125
- Ray Lopez (D)
Analysis: Ray Lopez is running unopposed for fourth term representing the district on the Northwest Side, including Leon Valley. He is a former communications executive for AT&T and previously served as District 6 councilman.