While the District 19 Congressional race will the main topic of discussion in the May 26 primary runoff in Lubbock and West Texas, another big topic is incumbent U.S. Senator from Texas John Cornyn in a runoff with challenger Ken Paxton, according to former Lubbock County GOP Chairman Shooter Shooter.

Related story: Sell, Enriquez bring different campaign approaches to District 19 Congress runoff while Abilene’s Smith ponders recount

“What I find really interesting is Ken Paxton has a lot of moral and ethical baggage that comes from, you know just like, the biblical divorce, biblical grounds, et cetera,” Shooter said.

He also mentioned whistleblower lawsuits against Paxton.

“Cornyn’s baggage is different. And I think it’s because he’s been in for so very, very long. He’s been on so many ballots over the last 20-some-odd years in Texas that I don’t think he can be in office for that long and not gather some baggage and not hack some folks off,” Shooter said.

“They view him as a Bush-ite, which was the way to be back in 2000 and 2004 in Texas – and apparently now is a dirty word. But I think some of that also has rubbed off on Sell, too,” Shooter said.

Races headed for a runoff on May 26 are:

U.S. Senate, John Cornyn vs. Ken Paxton (GOP)

U.S. Representative District 19, Tom Sell vs. Abraham Enriquez (GOP)

Texas Attorney General, Mayes Middleton vs. Chip Roy (GOP)

Texas Railroad Commission, Jim Wright vs. Bo French (GOP)

Justice of the Peace Precinct 3, Mary Hernandez vs. Traci Baxa (GOP)

County Commissioner Precinct 2, Trey Newton vs. Kevin Pounds (GOP)

County Commissioner Precinct 4, Jordan Rackler vs. Chad Seay (GOP)

Democratic Party Chair, Gracie Gomez vs. Brian Carr (DEM)

Shooter, local party chair from 2020-2024, remembers a really tight race in 2022. It was the first time Jordan Rackler and Chad Seay did battle for Precinct 4 County Commissioner. Now those same two are in the 2026 primary runoff.

“When I was chairman, we actually had to wait to call it until mail-in ballots were out there. We had an idea Rackler had won, but it was so razor thin that we were unable to call it,” Shooter said.

That was then. This time, Rackler took more than 47.5 percent of the vote on election night – just barely short of the majority needed to avoid a runoff with Seay.

Jim Baxa withdrew from the runoff with Sandy Garcia in the GOP race for Lubbock County Clerk. He said, among other things, he’ll devote more time to helping his wife, Traci Baxa, in her runoff against Mary Gonzales for Justice of the Peace Precinct 3. Both women outperformed incumbent Frank Gutierrez on election night.

Shooter said, “I don’t have any predictions that one would be better than the other, but that one is going to be a really interesting race to watch just because both are very sharp women.”

Related

Related posts