Can Progressives Win In Texas?
As we’ve done in the last two election cycles, FiveThirtyEight is once again tracking the success of candidates endorsed by progressive groups and progressive leaders to monitor the movement’s influence within the party. And in today’s runoff in Texas, there are two key races progressives are hoping to win.
The first is Texas’s 30th District, a seat that opened up when incumbent Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson announced her retirement after thirty years in office; in fact, Johnson is the only person to ever represent the 30th. And in today’s runoff, it’s a showdown between progressive attorney and state legislator Jasmine Crockett and former congressional staffer Jane Hamilton. Crockett and Hamilton are both Black women vying to replace Johnson, who is also a Black woman, in this predominantly Black district. Notably, Crockett has Johnson’s backing and support from progressive groups and leaders, such as Our Revolution and Sen. Bernie Sanders.
The second race that progressives are hoping to win today is in Texas’s 28th District. Progressive attorney Jessica Cisneros is taking on nine-term incumbent Rep. Henry Cuellar for the second time. Cuellar earned narrowly more support than Cisneros in the March primary but not enough to avoid a runoff. And given the attention that abortion has gotten in this race following the leaked Supreme Court opinion suggesting that five justices are ready to overturn Roe v. Wade, the issue could work in Cisneros’s favor as Cuellar, a longtime moderate, has often opposed abortion rights. Cisneros has made abortion rights central to the runoff campaign, although Cuellar has said that the leaked Supreme Court decision was not based on precedent and would “further divide the country during these already divisive times.”
We’ll be watching these two races closely to see whether progressives come out on top.