Former Air Force helicopter pilot MJ Hegar won the second round of the Democratic Senate in Texas on Tuesday to confront the senator. John Cornyn
John CornynMJ Hegar wins the Democratic battle to challenge John Cornyn The Hill Campaign Report: Key races take shape in Alabama, Texas, Maine 5 key races to see Tuesday MORE (R-Texas) in November.
The Associated Press called the race early Wednesday morning with Hegar leading state senator Royce West 52 percent to 48 percent, with 79 percent of the newsrooms.
Hegar was the preferred candidate on the campaign arm of the Senate Democrats. But he did not get the 50 percent of the votes he needed to get the nomination in a March primary that featured a field full of contenders.
That put her in a second round against West, triggering a long, bitter run for the Democratic nomination. West repeatedly raised questions about Hegar’s party credentials, including his decision to vote in the 2016 Republican presidential primaries, and accused national Democrats of putting their thumb on the Hegar scale.
Hegar was the best-funded candidate in the race, with $ 1.8 million in the second quarter of the year. West raised less than half a million dollars during the same period and spent only about $ 24,000 on television advertising attacking Hegar.
Hegar’s victory Tuesday prepares her for a general electoral challenge to Cornyn.
Together, we are organizing a winning campaign the size of Texas that will bring down Senator Cornyn and deliver real results on health care, racial justice, economic opportunity, climate change, immigration and gun violence. As a working mother who has lived through many of the Challenges that Faced with working families across the state, I am very proud to lead the effort to reclaim our status from politicians like John Cornyn, who are more DC than Texas, “she said in a statement after her victory.
Democrats are increasingly optimistic about his chances in Texas, as they believe former Rep. Beto O’Rourke (R-Texas) was on the verge of failing in his 2018 bid against the senator. Ted Cruz
Rafael (Ted) Edward Cruz MJ Hegar wins the Democratic battle to challenge John Cornyn The Hill Campaign Report: Key races take shape in Alabama, Texas, Maine 5 key races to see Tuesday MORE (R-Texas) and the changing demographics of the state presage a radical change in historically conservative Texas politics.
Democrats also hope they can flip the Senate this year. They will have to collect three or four seats occupied by the Republican Party, depending on the party that the White House wins, to do so.
So far, the Democrats’ path to the majority has been centered in four states: Arizona, Colorado, Maine and North Carolina. However, a handful of states, including Montana, Iowa, and Georgia, have come into play for Democrats, who also see Texas as a key recovery opportunity.
But toppling Cornyn can be difficult. A former majority Senate scourge, the incumbent of three terms has amassed a significant war chest; His campaign announced Monday that it would report having $ 14.5 million in cash available by the end of the second quarter. And the latest polls show him with relatively broad leads in the race.
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