\u201cThe experience factor is going to be huge,\u201d said Bell, who announced his campaign with an Austin news conference.<\/p>\n
Political Points<\/p>\n
By signing up, you agree to our\u00a0Terms of Service<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Privacy Policy.<\/a><\/p>\n Democratic senate candidate and former U.S. Rep. Chris Bell of Houston during a meeting with the The Dallas Morning News editorial board on Wednesday, Feb. 5, 2020, in Dallas. (Smiley N. Pool\/The Dallas Morning News)<\/p>\n Smiley N. Pool \/ Staff Photographer<\/p>\n Bell, 65, is running in the March 3 Democratic primary in a field that includes state Rep. Gina Hinojosa<\/a> of Austin, Houston businessman Andrew White<\/a> and Quitman rancher Bobby Cole.<\/p>\n He said he was the best choice to be the nominee against Abbott.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s one thing to talk. It\u2019s another thing to deliver,\u201d Bell said. \u201cI have a record that people can look to, and they don\u2019t have to be guessing about how I handle certain issues.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s going to be especially important for a Democratic governor working with what will most likely be a Republican-majority House and Senate,\u201d Bell added. \u201cI\u2019ve been in those situations before, where I have had to look to work things out with people on the other side, and I really have always enjoyed doing so.\u201d<\/p>\n Gov. Greg Abbott waves to supporters as he announces his reelection campaign for Texas governor in Houston, Sunday, Nov. 9, 2025. (Jason Fochtman\/Houston Chronicle via AP)<\/p>\n Jason Fochtman \/ AP<\/p>\n Bell, a Houston lawyer, was the Democratic nominee for governor in 2006, when he lost to Republican Rick Perry. <\/p>\n A former Houston council member, Bell served one term in Congress (2003-2005). He was caught up in the Republican-driven 2003 redistricting effort. His 25th Congressional District was renumbered District 9 and revised to include a heavy majority of Black and Latino voters. In 2004 Democrat Al Green, a former president of the Houston NAACP, won the seat.<\/p>\n The 2006 race for Texas governor was one of the most unusual in the state\u2019s history. Perry won with 39% percent of the vote against four major challengers. Bell was second with nearly 30%, followed by former Comptroller Carole Keeton Strayhorn with 18% and musician\/humorist Kinky Friedman with 12%. Friedman and Strayhorn, who spent most of her political career as a Republican, ran as independent candidates.<\/p>\n Bell has been unsuccessful in seeking public office since winning the 2006 Democratic nomination for governor. In 2008 he lost a special state Senate contest to Republican Joan Huffman of Houston. He finished fifth in a 2015 Houston mayoral race and sixth in the 2020 Democratic primary for the Senate seat held by Republican John Cornyn.<\/p>\n Bell said he\u2019s learned from a long political career.<\/p>\n \u201cGiven the experience I\u2019ve had since the 2006 election is sort of night and day,\u201d Bell said. \u201cThere\u2019s just a lot that I\u2019ve learned.\u201d<\/p>\n A Democrat hasn\u2019t won a statewide race since 1994. Bell, despite his past electoral futility, said he could reverse the losing trend.<\/p>\n \u201cThe path is there,\u201d he said. \u201cWe have to get the votes in the places where we need to get them, and there\u2019s some great pockets of Democrats around the state.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former U.S. Rep. Chris Bell on Monday announced a campaign to challenge Republican incumbent Greg Abbott for governor.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":44626,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[102,104,103,288,392,287],"class_list":{"0":"post-44625","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-dallas","8":"tag-dallas","9":"tag-dallas-headlines","10":"tag-dallas-news","11":"tag-elections","12":"tag-greg-abbott","13":"tag-politics"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44625","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=44625"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44625\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44626"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44625"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44625"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44625"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Democratic](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/YFJ5MCVBSJBANEKYNXL6GZ6ARQ.jpg\")
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