But before the two parties can duke it out in the fall, Republicans and Democrats are locked in heated primary races of their own. And candidates in both parties are facing allegations of lying about their party affiliation.<\/p>\n
The Democratic frontrunner, who has voted in GOP primaries in the past, is being accused of being a closet Republican. And the apparent Republican frontrunner \u2014 who has never voted at all \u2014 is being accused of secretly being a Democrat.<\/p>\n
The Best of the Tribune in your Inbox ![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/1771530728_43_TheYall-Primary_Black-1.png\")
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The Y\u2019all is a weekly dispatch about the people, places and policies that define the state of Texas. Produced by Texas Tribune journalists embedded in communities across the state. <\/p>\n
Despite similar conundrums, voters on either side of the aisle are facing two different questions as early voting is underway. Republicans will have to decide who has the best chance to win in the general election, while Democrats are trying to decide who will be the most effective in a Republican-controlled state House.<\/p>\n
Early voting began this week. Election Day is March 3. If a candidate does not win at least 50%, a runoff election will be held by the top two vote-getters. <\/p>\n
The Republicans![\"From](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/20260119-RGV-GOP-Primary-GC-11.jpg\")
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From left: Gary Groves, Sarah Sagredo Hammond and Sergio Sanchez, Republican primary candidates for state House District 41, participate in the Hidalgo County Republican Party candidate forum at the Christian Fellowship Church in McAllen on Jan. 29.
Gabriel V. C\u00e1rdenas for The Texas Tribune Gabriel V. C\u00e1rdenas for The Texas Tribune<\/p>\n
Among the candidates seeking the Republican nomination are Sergio Sanchez, a former felony prosecutor who previously voted in Democratic primaries; Gary Groves, a local Republican Party volunteer who organized Trump Train rallies; and Sarah Sagredo-Hammond, the owner of an HVAC company who had never voted at all.<\/p>\n
Sagredo-Hammond, who has amassed the most campaign donations among her fellow Republicans, said she wasn\u2019t raised to vote. Instead, she was taught to unite her community.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo me, voting was dividing,\u201d she said. \u201cYou\u2019re taking a side, and now you\u2019re dividing your community, and you\u2019re causing one side to hate what you\u2019re building because there\u2019s so much division in politics.\u201d<\/p>\n
In June, people in the community began encouraging her to run. She resisted for months, she said. Then, her father, the man who had raised her not to vote, encouraged her to take the opportunity as a way to serve. She agreed. <\/p>\n
![\"Sarah](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/20260119-RGV-GOP-Primary-GC-13.jpg\")
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Sarah Sagredo Hammond, speaks during the Hidalgo County Republican Party candidate forum in McAllen.
Gabriel V. C\u00e1rdenas for The Texas Tribune<\/p>\n
As part of her campaign, she has promised to lower property taxes, lower health insurance costs and advocate for small businesses. But her absent voting history, as well as past comments on abortion access and gun laws, have drawn sharp criticism from her opponents.<\/p>\n
Sergio Sanchez, a former prosecutor with the Hidalgo County District Attorney\u2019s Office, has been her harshest critic. He has emphasized their differences on abortion policy, which he has made a central issue to his campaign. <\/p>\n
Sagredo-Hammond has said she supports exceptions to the state\u2019s abortion ban in cases of rape or incest, a stance she points out is similar to Trump\u2019s.<\/p>\n
Sanchez, though, insists such views belong in the Democratic Party.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo all women or to anybody that is considering that you have a choice \u2014 you don\u2019t,\u201d Sanchez said during a candidate forum in January. \u201cYou don\u2019t have a choice in Texas. I regret to inform you \u2014 all of you \u2014\u00a0that is our law, and I have every intention of making it even stronger.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sanchez said he would file a bill to create a five-member panel that would review cases in which abortion is recommended to save the life of the mother to determine whether the diagnosis is legitimate.<\/p>\n
![\"Sergio](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/20260119-RGV-GOP-Primary-GC-08.jpg\")
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Sergio Sanchez at the Hidalgo County Republican Party candidate forum in McAllen on Jan. 29.
Gabriel V. C\u00e1rdenas for The Texas Tribune<\/p>\n
He also criticized Sagredo-Hammond for remarks she made on guns during a podcast in which she and other women were discussing mental health after a shooting in Georgia. During that conversation, Sagredo-Hammond questioned the sale of automatic guns and suggested they should be limited to war.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were sharing concepts and ideas,\u201d Sagredo-Hammond said. \u201cWe were not saying we were going to change an amendment, because we never would.\u201d<\/p>\n
She noted she also suggested that guns can be a useful tool for women to protect themselves.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you\u2019re single, and you\u2019re a single female, I highly encourage you to go get a gun, go learn how to use it, to keep yourself protected,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
That hasn\u2019t stopped Sanchez, who received one of the highest ratings from the NRA\u2019s political action committee<\/a>, from continuing to accuse her of wanting to impose gun restrictions. <\/p>\n \u201cI can promise you the first Republican for District 41 will be for the Second Amendment and not going to be imposing gun limits,\u201d he said during a recent candidate forum. <\/p>\n Sanchez is facing his own accusations of not being a true Republican.<\/p>\n Gary Groves, a precinct chair for the Hidalgo County Republican Party, said he decided to run because he didn\u2019t believe Sagredo-Hammond or Sanchez were conservative enough.<\/p>\n Groves leaves little doubt about what type of Republican he is, proudly wearing his red Make America Great Again cap nearly everywhere he goes.<\/p>\n \u201cI feel that if somebody does run as a MAGA Republican and doesn\u2019t shy away from it, there is a path forward to winning here in the Valley,\u201d Groves said.<\/p>\n Gary Groves speaks during the Hidalgo County Republican Party candidate forum. But in a possible sign of rising anti-Trump sentiment in the area, Groves\u2019 campaign signs were vandalized<\/a> in early February. The signs, which feature him donning the hat, were spray-painted with the words \u201cNo Nazis\u201d and \u201cNo Fascists.\u201d<\/p>\n Groves has argued that for the Republican nominee to be successful in the general election, they have to be a full-fledged MAGA Republican.<\/p>\n \u201cWe flipped this whole area red, and we saw the momentum and building of support for President Trump,\u201d Groves said.\u2029\u201dAnd I see this, my race, my candidacy, as a further building of that support.\u201d<\/p>\n In addition to pointing out that Sagredo-Hammond has never voted, Groves has repeatedly notedthat Sanchez previously voted in Democratic primaries.<\/p>\n Sanchez said he previously voted in Democratic primaries because Republicans rarely won elections in the fall. He figured voting in the Democratic primary had a greater sway in deciding the outcome of an election.<\/p>\n Texas House District 41, along with Hidalgo County as a whole, was part of the rightward shift in the Valley that helped solidify Trump\u2019s victory in 2024.<\/p>\n Trump won District 41 by 1.6 percentage points that year. However, Republicans were not so successful down the ballot. Voters in District 41 voted for Democrats in nearly all other races. The most notable exception was in the race for Texas Senate District 27. Republican Adam Hinojosa beat Democrat Morgan LaMantia by more than 17 points among District 41 voters.<\/p>\n But in the past, because the Democratic nominee was a shoo-in to win the general election, the Democratic primaries were the only truly competitive races.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve chosen to be relevant, and to speak my voice with the vote,\u201d Sanchez said. \u201cI know how I vote in November, but the truth is, the history of the county is there\u2019s only March races.\u201d<\/p>\n The Democrats From left: Julio Salinas, Victor \u201cSeby\u201d Haddad and Eric Holgu\u00edn, Democratic candidates for state House District 41, debate at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley in Edinburg on Feb. 11. Soon after Guerra announced he would not be seeking reelection, Seby Haddad, a McAllen City Commissioner and banker, announced his bid for the office. He\u2019s earned the backing of the local party establishment, including Guerra, and other state legislators from the Valley. <\/p>\n Initially skeptical of running for the state House, Haddad said he eventually believed his experience representing the area at the city level would make him a good champion of the district at the state level.<\/p>\n \u201cMy biggest question to myself is: \u2018Am I gonna get up there and be effective?\u2019\u201d Haddad said. \u201cI truly believe that I can be incredibly more effective at the state level and still work with all the relationships that I\u2019ve built up to benefit the region as a whole.\u201d<\/p>\n But as he made his pitch to voters, Haddad\u2019s past voting record has dogged his campaign. Between 2014 and 2022, Haddad voted in Republican primary elections, election rosters show. It wasn\u2019t until 2024 that he voted in a Democratic primary.<\/p>\n \n His voting history has served as the basis for attacks from opponents \u2014 Eric Holgu\u00edn, Texas policy director for UnidosUs, a Latino civil rights group, and Julio Salinas, a Texas legislative staffer and co-chair of the Texas Democratic Party Hispanic Caucus.<\/p>\n Holgu\u00edn accused Haddad of only running as a Democrat because the district is Democratic.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m proud to be an actual Democrat who has been voting Democrat since 2006, when I could first vote,\u201d Holgu\u00edn said during a candidate forum last week. \u201cI\u2019m not politically carpetbagging the way someone else up here is.\u201d<\/p>\n Haddad said he grew up a conservative Catholic. The pro-business and pro-fiscal responsibility messaging from the Republican Party resonated with him as someone in banking and as a small business owner.<\/p>\n As he became more involved in politics, he said he began looking at candidates on an individual basis, beyond their party affiliation.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was just about being practical, being pragmatic, and kind of finding common sense solutions,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Haddad said he began moving away from the Republican Party due to Trump, of whom Haddad has never been a fan. <\/p>\n Holgu\u00edn said he\u2019s not against people joining the Democratic Party, but he took issue with a newcomer immediately seeking a position of power within the party.<\/p>\n \u201cWhy are you seeking the position of power within the (Democratic Party) immediately, as opposed to joining our cause, being with Democrats, going to meetings, helping organize, doing a lot of the work that many of us have been doing for many, many years?\u201d Holgu\u00edn said.<\/p>\n Eric Holgu\u00edn speaks at a debate at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley in Edinburg. Voting history aside, the three candidates share similar views on most policy issues.<\/p>\n All agree on the need for property tax reform and the need for the state to properly fund public schools, Medicaid expansion, increased investment in water infrastructure and opposition to the development of more data centers in the area.<\/p>\n They also said they were against Operation Lone Star, Texas\u2019 border security initiative, and would support a requirement for Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers to wear visible identification.<\/p>\n Holgu\u00edn has been running a social media-heavy campaign to get his name out to voters. But this isn\u2019t his first foray.<\/p>\n In 2020, Holgu\u00edn ran for Texas House District 32 \u2014 which includes Corpus Christi and Aransas \u2014 but lost to state Rep. Todd Hunter<\/a>, a Republican from Corpus Christi. In 2018, Holgu\u00edn also ran for Texas\u2019 27th Congressional District but lost to U.S. Rep. Michael Cloud<\/a>, a Republican from Victoria.<\/p>\n Holgu\u00edn said he wants to raise wages and diversify the region\u2019s economy. One of the first things he\u2019d do in office, he said, is introduce a bill that would ensure rent is counted toward building credit.<\/p>\n Salinas, at 26-years-old, is one of the youngest elected party leaders in Texas. For the past five years, he\u2019s worked as a legislative staffer, including as the legislative director for state Rep. Christina Morales<\/a>, a Democrat from Houston. He received Morales\u2019 endorsement in the race along with several other state lawmakers from outside the Valley, including state Rep. Lulu Flores<\/a>, a Democrat from Austin.<\/p>\n Salinas has also emphasized the affordability crisis and pledged to \u201ctake on the oligarchs that rigged the economy to serve themselves.\u201d <\/p>\n If elected, Salinas would prioritize a child care tax credit bill that would compensate non-primary caregivers. He also wants a $15,000 raise for teachers and a cap on prescription drug prices.<\/p>\n Julio Salinas speaks during a House District 41 Debate at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley in Edinburg. Haddad\u2019s top priorities include addressing the state\u2019s water crisis through investment in water infrastructure for new sources of water, but also for water recapture. He also emphasized investment in education, particularly in vocational schools.<\/p>\n Haddad said he\u2019s proud to call himself a center, moderate Democrat; however, he said he respects people on the farthest end of the progressive spectrum because he believes they\u2019re fighting for the same values.<\/p>\n \u201cI think it\u2019s critical that we understand that, and that we stick together,\u201d he said. \u201cThe Republican side \u2014 they will celebrate their worst, and sometimes on the Democrat side, we\u2019ll nitpick our best.\u201d<\/p>\n Reporting in the Rio Grande Valley is supported in part by the Methodist Healthcare Ministries of South Texas, Inc.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"McALLEN \u2014\u00a0Republicans and Democrats are fighting over South Texas, one of the conservative state\u2019s few political battlegrounds. The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":171812,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[30021,288,69446,287,1472,69447,1564,27,29,1862,293,28,69448],"class_list":["post-171811","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-christina-morales","tag-elections","tag-michael-cloud","tag-politics","tag-rio-grande-valley","tag-robert-bobby-guerra","tag-state-government","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-house-of-representatives","tag-texas-legislature","tag-texas-news","tag-todd-hunter"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/171811","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=171811"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/171811\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/171812"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=171811"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=171811"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=171811"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Gary](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/20260119-RGV-GOP-Primary-GC-05.jpg\")
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Gabriel V. C\u00e1rdenas for The Texas Tribune<\/p>\n![\"From](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/20260211-RGV-Dem-Primary-GC-32.jpg\")
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Gabriel V. C\u00e1rdenas for The Texas Tribune<\/p>\n![\"Victor](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/20260211-RGV-Dem-Primary-GC-02.jpg\")
Seby Haddad speaks during a debate at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley in Edinburg. Gabriel V. C\u00e1rdenas for The Texas Tribune\n<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/20260211-RGV-Dem-Primary-GC-03.jpg\")
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Gabriel V. C\u00e1rdenas for The Texas Tribune<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/20260211-RGV-Dem-Primary-GC-04.jpg\")
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Gabriel V. C\u00e1rdenas for The Texas Tribune<\/p>\n