Election Ticker: Noises From the Primary

The "Draft Delia" folks – shadow campaigners for Mayor Pro Tem Delia Garza in her all-but-declared race for Travis County Attorney – are trumpeting the results of an initial robopoll of 502 likely Democratic primary voters. In response to the question, "If the election were held today, for whom would you vote?" Garza was the choice of 34%, former Judge Mike Denton 10%, current Assistant C.A. Laurie Eiserloh 7%, and attorney Dominic Selvera 1%. The winner? "Unsure," with 48%. Garza has to wait until at least Friday to officially declare, lest she run afoul of Texas' "resign-to-run" laws...

After much hemming and hawing, TX-21 incumbent Rep. Chip Roy, R-Dripping Springs, has announced he is indeed running for reelection to defend "limited government" and to stop Democrats from imposing "socialism." The Hill reported that Roy told the Republican Women of Kerr County (the district stretches from Austin to San Antonio to Kerrville) that the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee is heavily targeting TX-21, while the equivalent Republican committee is doing "zero." As of Dec. 4, Roy has no GOP opponent. ... His most likely Democratic opponent, former state Sen. Wendy Davis, formally filed for the office Wednesday morning (Circle C resident Jennie Lou Leeder is also on the Dem­ocratic primary ballot). Davis said, "Central Texans are tired of being ignored by politicians like Chip Roy."...

Interim County Court at Law No. 4 Judge Dimple Malhotra (appointed by Travis County commissioners) is running for the Democratic nomination to retain the seat, but she'll be going up against at least one opponent: criminal defense attorney Margaret Chen Kercher* (who filed in November), who claims to have extensive experience in CCL4 that she says qualifies her to "end the backlog of family violence cases" in the court. Chen Kercher had also applied for the interim appointment to the bench...

The Dr. Pritesh Gandhi campaign announced that "314 Action, the nation's largest resource for scientists and STEM professionals running for public office," has endorsed Gandhi in his campaign for TX-10 (currently held by eight-term incumbent Rep. Michael McCaul, R-West Lake Hills). "Why '314 Action'? Because Pi is everywhere. It's the most widely known mathematical ratio both inside and out of the scientific community." (Also running in the TX-10 Democratic primary are Mike Siegel and Shannon Hutcheson)...

Add state Rep. Gina Hinojosa to the list of supporters of Julie Oliver for the Dem nomination in TX-25. "I'm thrilled that Julie is running again," said Hinojosa, "and I look forward to seeing her advance our shared goals in Congress come January 2021." (Oliver faces Heidi Sloan in the Dem primary, for the chance to oust incumbent Rep. Roger Williams, R-Weatherford)...

Lite Guv Dan Patrick filed papers with the Repub­lican Party of Texas to place Donald Trump's name on the Texas presidential primary ballot, mimicking the Chosen One's rhetorical style: "A strong majority of Texans are ready to reelect the President, no matter what socialist, job-killing, energy-hating, tax-increasing, pro-abortion, anti-gun candidate the Democrats manage to drag across the finish line."...

Democratic U.S. Senate candidate MJ Hegar appears Wednesday morning, Dec. 11, at 8am, in a conversation with Texas Tribune co-founder and CEO Evan Smith. You can RSVP to attend at the Tribune website, where the talk will also be simultaneously live-streamed. (Already in the Tribune archives are conversations with Dem candidates Cristina Tzintzún Ramirez and state Sen. Royce West, D-Dallas.)

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*Margaret Chen Kercher's name was originally misspelled. It has been corrected.