In the race to decide the Democratic candidate for one of the most hotly contested Texas House races this November, progressive favorite Kristian Carranza defeated attorney Carlos Quezada, who had the backing of the district’s former officeholders, Tuesday night.
With 239 of 267 vote centers reporting, Carranza had 63% of the vote and claimed victory. Quezada had 37%.
Carranza will face a formidable opponent in Republican John Lujan, whose success in the historically Democratic House District 118 has been a source of pride for Gov. Greg Abbott and other Texas Republicans.
The Southside district was redrawn to include more Republicans after the 2020 census, but is still a majority-minority district that’s population is roughly 40% Hispanic. President Joe Biden would have carried the district by roughly 3 percentage points under its current boundaries.
Lujan, who had held the seat briefly once before, flipped it for Republicans in a 2021 special election against Democrat Frank Ramirez, then fended off Ramirez in a rematch in the 2022 midterm, taking roughly 52% of the vote.
Headed into the primary this year, Democrats were conflicted about the best route to winning back the seat.
The party put few resources into the 2022 race compared to the flood of ads supporting Lujan — something Carranza says is key to correcting their mistakes.
“John Lujan has forgotten about HD 118 in Austin,” she said in a prepared statement Tuesday night. “Facing a choice between funding public schools or stripping their funding through private school vouchers, he voted for vouchers. When tens of thousands of families lost their health care due to bureaucratic mistakes, he reacted with silence. And when it comes to the most basic individual right of a woman to choose for herself if, when, and how many children to have, he joins the most extreme faction of his party.”
The 33-year old political organizer has worked as a regional director for the Democratic National Committee, a national field director for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, and on both Hillary Clinton and Julián Castro’s presidential campaigns.
That experience has helped her make connections with many deep-pocketed groups that could help her own race this year.
Carranza’s state House campaign has the backing of the Texas Organizing Project, Emily’s List, Planned Parenthood Votes, the Latino Victory Fund and several labor unions, as well as civil rights leader Rosie Castro and U.S. Rep. Joaquin Castro.
She raised about $128,000 during the primary, to Quezada’s $30,000.
“It’s really important for me to demonstrate that we’re able to fundraise and put together a team,” Carranza said in a January interview. “That’s how we win this seat, early organizing, early infrastructure building, because it’s a long way to go to November.”
Quezada’s allies, meanwhile, believed the best candidate to face Lujan should be someone with broader appeal.
Quezada said he and Carranza would likely vote the same way at the state Capitol, but his campaign focused less on social issues, like abortion rights, that some Democrats worry could alienate older Hispanic voters.
In the final stretch of the campaign, he attacked her for only recently moving to the district. Carranza grew up on the South Side, but had been living downtown until fall 2023.
Aside from four years spent working as a prosecutor in Laredo, Quezada touted having lived in House District 118 nearly their entire life. He was a juvenile judge in Texas 289th District Court from 2018 to 2022, served on the Harlandale school board and built a home down the street from his parents.
Lujan did not face a primary challenger.
For the first time in his career, Lujan is headed into the November election with a voting record, having previously only held the seat while the House wasn’t in session.
Last year Lujan supported Abbott’s school voucher plan, something Democrats plan to highlight in their campaigns, and cosponsored a bill aimed at restricting the authority of local governments, known as the “Death Star” bill.
Texas House District 116
Democratic state House Rep. Trey Martinez Fischer, first elected to the Legislature in 2000, chaired the House Democratic Caucus in the most recent session. In a state dominated by Republicans, the job is aimed primarily at stopping policies Democrats disagree with, like a school voucher plan that Gov. Greg Abbott wanted but all House Democrats joined 21 Republicans in shutting down.
Martinez Fischer was unopposed in 2022 and did not draw a primary opponent this year.
He faces Republican Darryl Crain, a San Antonio minister, in November.
Texas House District 117
Democratic State Rep. Philip Cortez, a former San Antonio city councilman, won this once swing district in 2012, lost it in 2014 and reclaimed it in 2016.
Now the Southwest Bexar County seat is considered safely Democratic, and Cortez was deemed “furniture” by Texas Monthly in the magazine’s list of Best and Worst Legislators of 2023.
He didn’t draw a primary opponent, but faces a challenge from Republican Ben Mostyn, who has been campaigning aggressively at both Republican and Democratic gatherings. Mostyn is a U.S. Army veteran, an instructor for the Department of Defense, and also had a career as an actor and model.
Cortez defeated Republican challenger Aaron Schwope with roughly 63% of the vote in 2022.
Texas House District 119
Incumbent Democrat Liz Campos, who has held her seat since 2020, took roughly 84% of the vote over Charles Fuentes, legislative director for the Communications Workers of America.
Texas House District 119 makes a horseshoe around the East Side of the city, including parts of South San Antonio and stretching up to Converse.
Campos is a former state House and state Senate staffer, and served as vice chair of the Public Health Committee in the most recent session. She was reelected with 78% in 2022 in a race against a Libertarian candidate.
Fuentes, who co-chairs the San Antonio AFL-CIO Central Labor Council, said at a Communications of America rally Saturday that he was running because of the anti-worker legislation coming out of the legislature.
“We have not had representation of the working class that we need in the Texas State Legislature,” he said. “Because of that, we see these laws coming out of the legislature that are not good for the common folk.”
In the Republican primary, civil rights attorney Brandon Grable defeated software developer Dan Sawatzki with about 56% of the vote.
Texas House District 120
Democrat Barbara Gervin-Hawkins is seeking a fifth term in the Texas House. Last year Gervin-Hawkins, who helped found a charter school, was put on a special House committee tasked with crafting a school voucher program.
Though Gervin-Hawkins doesn’t support school vouchers, she irritated some Democrats by saying she wanted to take part in the negotiations if such a program was inevitable in the Republican-controlled House. She ultimately voted against the voucher plan that failed, and did not draw a primary opponent or general election challenger.
She was reelected with 67% of the vote in 2022.
Texas House District 121
Republican challenger Marc LaHood defeated state Rep. Steve Allison, who was seeking his fourth term.
Laurel Jordan Swift, an orthopedic device salesperson, won the Democratic nomination with 74% of the vote over Shekhar Sinha, a retired IT specialist.
Texas House District 122
Republican Mark Dorazio self-funded an expensive GOP primary campaign to replace retiring state House Rep. Lyle Larson in 2022, and quickly joined the legislature’s conservative wing.
He was one of 23 Republicans who did not support the House’s impeachment of Attorney General Ken Paxton last year, and one of 63 Republicans supported Abbott’s failed school voucher program.
Dorazio carried the seat with 56% of the vote in 2022. He did not draw a primary challenger this year, but will face Democrat Kevin Geary, an attorney working on regulatory issues for USAA, in November.
Texas House District 123
Incumbent Democrat Diego Bernal, a civil rights lawyer and former San Antonio City Council member, has held the seat since 2015, when he won it in a special election.
Bernal was reelected with 67% of the vote in 2022, and did not draw a primary challenger or Republican opponent this year.
Texas House District 124
Democrat Josey Garcia, a U.S. Air Force veteran and police reform activist, won the seat in 2022 after longtime incumbent Ina Minjarez decided not to seek reelection.
This year she’ll face Republican Sylvia Soto, a math and science teacher in the North East Independent School District.
Garcia used her personal experience with domestic violence and the foster system to advocate for those issues during her first term, and was named Freshman of the Year by the House Democratic Caucus.
She took 67% of the vote in a race against Republican Johnny Arredondo in 2022.
Texas House District 125
Democratic state Rep. Ray Lopez coasted to an easy victory over Eric Michael Garza, an attorney for State Farm, claiming nearly 70% of the vote.
With no Republican opponent in November, Lopez will get a fourth term in the Texas House. He is a former communications executive for AT&T who represented District 6 on the San Antonio City Council and served on the board of the Northside Independent School District.
At a Communications Workers of America rally Saturday, Lopez said he and his staff have been working on a universal statewide pre-K program for Texas, similar to the Pre-K for SA program he helped create as a councilman.
Lopez was reelected with 63% of the vote in 2022.
Texas Senate District 25
Just one of Bexar County’s four state senators is up for reelection this year. They drew lots last year to determine how their four-year terms would be staggered after redistricting.
Republican Donna Campbell (R-New Braunfels), an ally of Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, has represented state Senate District 25 since 2012, when she unseated a more moderate incumbent in the primary. She was reelected with roughly 63% of the vote in 2022.
Last session Campbell voted to overturn Paxton’s impeachment, and served as vice chair of the Senate’s Education Committee, which advanced its own school voucher proposal that Abbott disliked.
Campbell did not draw a primary opponent this year, but faces Democrat Merrie Fox, a former public school teacher and principal, in November.
