LaHood, a criminal defense attorney, was part of a group of lawyers in the House Republican Caucus \u2014 including House Speaker Dustin Burrows (R-Lubbock) \u2014 that bucked powerful business interests<\/a> on their priority legal reform legislation near the end of his first term.<\/p>\n He faced a GOP primary challenge from David McArthur<\/a>, a business consultant backed by the powerful Texans for Lawsuit Reform PAC (TLR), which wanted to punish LaHood and root out trial lawyers within the Republican Party.<\/p>\n But LaHood fended him off easily Tuesday, with 73.6% of the vote to McArthur\u2019s 26.4%.<\/p>\n In another Northside race, Texas House District 122<\/a>, the lawsuit reform group backed<\/a> challenger Willie Ng<\/a> over state Rep. Mark Dorazio<\/a> (R-San Antonio), a member of the GOP\u2019s conservative wing who had voted against their priority bills. Dorazio held him off with 74.63% of the vote to Ng\u2019s 23.57%.<\/p>\n Texans for Lawsuit Reform did have one big victory in this area<\/a>, in the open House District 118 race, where it spent big to help former Texas Public Policy Foundation staffer Jorge Borrego<\/a> defeat trial attorney Desi Martinez<\/a> in the GOP primary to replace state Rep. John Lujan (R-San Antonio).<\/p>\n \u201cThey\u2019re pumping cash in to really scare voters, and the whole message is against Desi Martinez, solely because he\u2019s a lawyer,\u201d Republican consultant Greg Brockhouse said of the group\u2019s maneuvering in that race.<\/p>\n A rising GOP star<\/p>\n LaHood joined his family, friends and supporters at the Angry Elephant shortly after polls closed on Tuesday evening.\u00a0<\/p>\n He won the seat by defeating an incumbent Republican two years ago, in a district that\u2019s also frequently targeted by Democrats in the general election.\u00a0<\/p>\n After weeks of doorknocking and standing at the polls, LaHood said he was tired and is struggling with a back issue that predates the campaign. But he remained enthusiastic about his first run for reelection.\u00a0<\/p>\n What encouraged him the most during his first term, he said, was that people took him up on his offer to meet with them to discuss issues of importance to them, regardless of whether they agreed on the issue or not.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cProbably 85% of my meetings during the session were people that were disagreeing with an issue that I was an advocate for, and I met with them,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m not going to pretend that I converted everybody or even a lot of them, although I did convert a few. But I am confident that no one walked out of that meeting disliking me more.\u201d<\/p>\n Having a first term made this campaign easier as he could use his track record as reference when meeting with constituents, he said. But this was nonetheless a challenging and expensive campaign.<\/p>\n Looking ahead to November, LaHood said the issues he\u2019s most passionate about, including his support of school choice, remain the same. But that shouldn\u2019t stop anyone from joining him at the table to share their point of view, he added.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI listen to what matters to them and how we can help them without violating my principles, without violating my conscience, but [to] figure how we can move the needle for the betterment of Texas,\u201d LaHood said. \u201cIt sounds cheesy, but I really believe that.\u201d<\/p>\n LaHood will face Democrat Zack Dunn<\/a>, a prosecutor in the Bexar County District Attorney\u2019s office, in November.\u00a0<\/p>\n Incumbent Democrats cruise through primaries\u00a0<\/p>\n Three Democratic incumbents, state Reps. Philip Cortez<\/a> (D-San Antonio), Elizabeth \u201cLiz\u201d Campos<\/a> (D-San Antonio) and Barbara Gervin-Hawkins<\/a> (D-San Antonio), faced challengers who drew unusual endorsements from the state\u2019s largest labor group<\/a>, AFL-CIO, which represents teachers, communications workers and firefighters.<\/p>\n Of those, Gervin-Hawkins, who represents Texas House District 120, seemed the most vulnerable headed into the night.\u00a0<\/p>\n She had long drawn criticism from fellow Democrats for her work with charter schools, and faced two earlier-career primary challengers, Jordan Brown<\/a>, and Bently Paiz<\/a>, making it easier to push the race to a runoff in Texas House District 120<\/a>.<\/p>\n Brown, a special education teacher, picked up endorsements from organized labor<\/a> groups and progressive Councilman Jalen McKee-Rodriguez (D2)<\/a>.<\/p>\n Gervin-Hawkins wound up with 62.12% of the vote, to Brown\u2019s 28.82%.\u00a0<\/p>\n In Texas House District 117<\/a>, Cortez faced a primary challenger, Robert Mihara<\/a>, who says he should have participated <\/a>in the quorum break aimed at slowing Texas Republicans\u2019 redistricting efforts. <\/p>\n Cortez took 72.77% of the vote to Mihara\u2019s 27.23%<\/p>\n In Texas House District 119<\/a>, Campos spent big against her opponent Ryan Ayala<\/a>, a 25-year-old attorney and first-time candidate. <\/p>\n Campos took 77.63% to Ayala\u2019s 22.37%.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In an unusual primary election, Bexar County state lawmakers who have little to fear in most reelection races…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":189806,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[8519,58718,58939,58719,53282,57604,58720,58721,58722,82,84,83,2332,75420,32626,3028,94],"class_list":{"0":"post-189805","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-antonio","8":"tag-2026-election","9":"tag-barbara-gervin-hawkins","10":"tag-david-mcarthur","11":"tag-jordan-brown","12":"tag-liz-campos","13":"tag-marc-lahood","14":"tag-philip-cortez","15":"tag-robert-mihara","16":"tag-ryan-ayala","17":"tag-san-antonio","18":"tag-san-antonio-headlines","19":"tag-san-antonio-news","20":"tag-texas-house","21":"tag-texas-house-district-120","22":"tag-texas-house-district-121","23":"tag-typedaily","24":"tag-wc-750-1000"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/189805","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=189805"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/189805\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/189806"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=189805"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=189805"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=189805"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/A66A0058.jpg\")
State Rep. Marc LaHood, District 121, meets with supporters at a primary election watch party Tuesday at The Angry Elephant. Credit: Vincent Reyna for the San Antonio Report<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/A66A0071a.jpg\")
State Rep. Marc LaHood, District 121, meets with supporters at a watch party March 3, 2026 at The Angry Elephant. Credit: Vincent Reyna for the San Antonio Report<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/SAReport-Deco-Ballroom-5.jpg\")
Jordan Brown, candidate for Texas House District 120, makes a speech during a watch party Tuesday night at Deco Ballroom. Credit: Vincent Reyna for the San Antonio Report<\/p>\n