Greg Casar and Eddie Rodriguez Fight for the Progressive Mantle in TX-35
For the first time in a decade, voters in Texas' 35th congressional district will nominate a Democrat who isn't named Lloyd Doggett. That's because TX-35 has once again morphed in a GOP-controlled redistricting cycle, although the 2021 version has been kinder to Austin than the previous two cycles. The new TX-37, one of the two seats Texas gained in reapportionment following the 2020 census, was drawn as a solidly Democratic vote sink almost entirely within the Austin city limits, and Doggett – first elected as Austin's boy-wonder state senator nearly 50 years ago – has opted to seek his 15th term in Congress in that district.
That leaves TX-35 wide open – a solidly Democratic, 70% non-Anglo and roughly half-Hispanic district stretching from the Williamson County line, east of I-35, all the way to the Alamo. Austin City Council Member Greg Casar (whose last day at City Hall is this week) and state Rep. Eddie Rodriguez, D-Austin, both entered the race in November. With the majority of TX-35's eligible voters hailing from high-turnout Travis and Hays counties, Rodriguez and Casar have the advantage in the March 1 Democratic primary and potential May run-off; for the victor, the Nov. 8 general election will be a formality.
There are, however, still more than 300,000 residents of Bexar and Comal counties in the southern tail of the district, and much speculation centered on which San Antonio politician might enter the race. State Rep. Trey Martinez Fischer considered it and indeed asked the GOP's redistricting committees to draw his home into the new TX-35. But looking at the electoral math within the final district lines, TMF opted instead to run for reelection and endorse Rodriguez, while also joining the legal challenges to the new map with a specific claim that TX-35 as drawn, with fewer Latino voters than in the current version that Doggett represents, violates the Voting Rights Act.
Instead, Rebecca Viagran, an eight-year veteran of the San Antonio City Council (where she was succeeded by her sister Phyllis), hopes to activate enough Bexar County voters to knock either Casar or Rodriguez out of a run-off. Carla-Joy Sisco of Austin is the fourth candidate in the race, but has not nearly the public profile of the other three, who have begun a race to the left, each attempting to define themselves as the most progressive in the field.
Read more: https://www.austinchronicle.com/news/2022-02-04/greg-casar-and-eddie-rodriguez-fight-for-the-progressive-mantle-in-tx-35/
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