Texass primary election is especially important this year. Thats because Republican lawmakers redrew the states political maps after the 2020 Census to fortify their majorities.
With most legislative and congressional districts now carefully configured to favor one party, many races effectively will be decided in the March primary.
Here is a roundup of hard-fought Democratic and Republican primary contests for federal, state and local offices in the San Antonio area.
Early voting ends Friday. Election Day is March 1.
VOTER GUIDE: What to know for the Texas primary election
In perhaps the most closely watched congressional primary in Texas, U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar is again trying to fend off progressive immigration attorney Jessica Cisneros, after narrowly defeating her in 2020.
Cuellar, one of the most conservative Democrats in Congress, was already under fire from the left before FBI agents searched his home and campaign headquarters in January, upending the race.
Authorities have not disclosed the nature of the investigation, but ABC News has reported that a federal grand jury sought records from organizations with ties to the oil-rich former Soviet republic of Azerbaijan. Cuellar has visited the country and served as chair of the Congressional Azerbaijan Caucus. Cuellar has said the investigation will show that there is no wrongdoing on my part.
The presence of a third candidate, educator Tannya Benavides, raises the possibility of a runoff if no candidate wins more than 50 percent of the vote.
The district, newly drawn to include a larger share of San Antonio, runs all the way to the border, including Laredo, the hometown of both Cisneros and Cuellar.
Though Cuellar won re-election in 2020 by a margin of 19 percentage points, national Republicans are targeting this seat, sensing opportunity in a potential GOP wave year and the possibility Cuellar could lose the Democratic primary.
Seven Republicans are seeking the nomination. The three who have raised the most funds are Ed Cabrera, a rancher and businessman; Cassy Garcia, a former staffer for U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, who is backing Garcia in the primary; and Willie Ng, a former San Antonio police officer and Republican nominee for Bexar County sheriff.
With longtime congressman Lloyd Doggett running for a newly drawn congressional seat in deep-blue Austin, four Democrats are running to replace him in the 35th Congressional District, which stretches from Austin to San Antonio.
Former San Antonio city councilwoman Rebecca Viagran is among the contenders. But two Austin-based candidates have attracted the bulk of the fundraising and endorsements: former Austin city councilman Greg Casar and state Rep. Eddie Rodriguez.
Both are touting their liberal bona fides. Casar, a democratic socialist and former labor organizer who championed some of Austins most progressive policies in recent years, has the support of U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders and U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
Rodriguez, who is backed by a number of his statehouse colleagues and at least three Texas members of Congress, argues that he would be a more effective legislator than Casar, pitching himself as the progressive who makes progress.
State Rep. Lyle Larson, by some measures the most moderate Republican lawmaker in Austin, is retiring from the Legislature, creating an opening in his red-leaning northern Bexar County district.
Four Republicans are competing to succeed him: attorney and trucking industry executive Adam Blanchard, former San Antonio city councilwoman Elisa Chan, financial executive and Air Force veteran Mark Cuthbert, and former Bexar County Republican Party chair Mark Dorazio.
Blanchard has easily led the field in fundraising, boosted by endorsements from Larson and Texans for Lawsuit Reform, an influential tort reform group. But Chan has loaned her campaign $750,000, allowing her to nearly double Blanchards spending through mid-January. Dorazio has trailed in fundraising, though he maintains close ties to GOP activists and has been endorsed by U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz and former Texas Gov. Rick Perry.
Three Democrats with varying rsums but few discernible policy differences are competing for the countys top elected post, which has been held by the retiring incumbent, Nelson Wolff, since 2001.
The wide-open primary features Ivalis Meza Gonzalez, former chief of staff for Mayor Ron Nirenberg; state Rep. Ina Minjarez, a former prosecutor in the Bexar County District Attorneys Office; and Peter Sakai, a former district court judge and municipal lawyer. A fourth candidate, Gerard Ponce, has raised only a few hundred dollars and has unsuccessfully sought a number of local offices in recent years.
Two Republicans are running in the GOP primary: Nathan Buchanan, a small business owner and former constable candidate, and Trish DeBerry, a former public relations executive who resigned as Precinct 3 commissioner to run for county judge. Buchanan has reported minimal fundraising, positioning DeBerry to represent the party in November.
Republicans last won an election for Bexar County judge in 1998.
The district remains anchored in Hidalgo County along the border and stretches all the way north to Wilson and Guadalupe counties just east of San Antonio. But it will have new representation next year, after Republicans tweaked the boundaries to favor a GOP candidate and incumbent Democrat Vicente Gonzalez decided to run for a neighboring seat instead.
Nine Republicans are running for the seat, led by the 2020 nominee, Monica De La Cruz, who was recently endorsed by former president Donald Trump and is backed by Republican House leadership. A super PAC aligned with House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy has supported De La Cruz and run radio attack ads against one of her main primary foes, Mauro Garza.
Six Democrats are seeking their partys nomination, including Eliza Alvarado, a former staffer for Gonzalezs predecessor, Rubn Hinojosa, and co-founder of a nonprofit that focuses on voter registration; Ruben Ramirez, an Edinburg attorney and Army veteran endorsed by Gonzalez; John Villarreal Rigney, an Edinburg attorney and small business owner; and Michelle Vallejo, a small business owner from the McAllen area.
Three Republicans are running for this newly crafted state Senate district, which sweeps around the west side of Bexar County, covering all of Medina County and parts of the Hill Country and Atascosa County. The latter is home to former state senator Pete Flores, a Republican who is making a comeback bid for the seat being vacated by state Sen. Dawn Buckingham, who is running for land commissioner.
Flores, who lost re-election in a different district in 2020, is backed by Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, who has appeared on the stump with with Flores and cut his campaign a $150,000 check. Flores main rival, former congressional candidate Raul Reyes, has called Flores a lapdog, suggesting he would be beholden to Patrick and the Senate leadership.
Reyes himself has raised the vast majority of his campaign cash $300,000 out of nearly $323,000 from a single source: Billy Hopper, the retired sheriff of Loving County, a tiny community in far West Texas located well outside the district.
Three Democrats are running for the west Bexar County seat held by state Rep. Ina Minjarez, a Democrat who is running for county judge. The field consists of Josey Garcia, an Air Force veteran and co-founder of a nonprofit that provides humanitarian aid to migrants; Steven Gilmore, a San Antonio criminal defense attorney; and Gerald B. Lopez, a Northside Independent School District trustee.
After nearly two decades as one of the most moderate Democrats in the Legislature, longtime state Rep. Ryan Guillen switched to the Republican Party last year, shortly after his south Texas district was reconfigured to favor a GOP candidate.
In his first time on the GOP ballot, Guillen is backed by a laundry list of prominent Republicans, including Trump, Patrick, Abbott and Speaker Dade Phelan. He is being challenged from the right by primary opponents Alena Berlanga, a nurse who serves on the Floresville Independent School District board of trustees, and Mike Monreal, a construction executive and retired Navy captain.
With incumbent Republican George P. Bush running for attorney general, 12 candidates are vying to take over the Texas General Land Office, which administers disaster recovery after major storms, oversees the Alamo and contributes oil and gas royalties to the state's $44 billion public school endowment.
State Sen. Dawn Buckingham, an eye surgeon from Lakeway, has emerged as the favorite in the Republican primary, winning the endorsement of former President Donald Trump and top Texas Republicans. But with eight GOP candidates running, she may be pushed into a runoff.
The four-candidate Democratic primary includes conservationist Jay Kleberg and Austin attorney Jinny Suh.
Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller is battling for a third term against East Texas state Rep. James White and rancher and economics professor Carey Counsil. Both have accused Miller of being ethically challenged, pointing to corruption charges filed against a top aide who is accused of soliciting bribes from farmers in exchange for hemp licenses.
Miller, who calls the indictment baseless, is supported by Trump and has maintained a wide lead in public polls.
Though all public polls have him well ahead of his three primary challengers, Attorney General Ken Paxton could be forced into a runoff against either Land Commissioner George P. Bush, U.S. Rep. Louie Gohmert or former state Supreme Court justice Eva Guzman.
All three have argued that Paxtons legal entanglements would make him vulnerable against the Democratic nominee in November. The Democratic hopefuls include former ACLU attorney Rochelle Garza, former Galveston mayor Joe Jaworski and civil rights attorney Lee Merritt.
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Here's a roundup of hot primary contests in the San Antonio area - San Antonio Express-News
