House District 121 has long sent establishment Republicans to Austin. This year, it’s a key battleground in the conservative wing’s fight for control of the House.
In the March primary, Republican Marc LaHood defeated the more moderate state House Rep. Steve Allison (R-Alamo Heights) with the help of Gov. Greg Abbott and other school voucher proponents who saw Allison as an obstacle to that goal.
In the months following that race, LaHood’s list of supporters has grown to include some of the most controversial figures in Texas politics: West Texas oil billionaires Tim Dunn and Farris Wilks, who’ve been instrumental in the rightward shift of the Texas legislature.
Dunn and Wilks are proponents of traditional conservative causes like loosening regulation and lowering taxes, but in recent years, have become best known for their efforts to intertwine Christianity with state government, including allegedly telling former Texas Speaker Joe Straus that only Christian lawmakers should hold chairmanships.
A campaign finance report covering July 1 through Sept. 26 indicates their new political group, Texans United for a Conservative Majority PAC, gave LaHood $75,000.
LaHood did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Tuesday.
On the November ballot, LaHood is up against Democrat Laurel Jordan Swift, a political newcomer who has been openly courting support from Republicans for her uphill race
House District 121 encompasses some suburban territory, like Alamo Heights, that’s been trending away from Republicans in recent years. But redistricting also added some new territory on the further outskirts of San Antonio, like west Stone Oak, which has been trending redder.
Choosing LaHood in the primary marks a sharp departure from the establishment Republicans who’ve long represented the district, including Straus and Allison, whose financial support came primarily from the business community.
It comes as the party’s conservative wing is gearing up for a fight in the next legislative session, and has already rallied around a new candidate for House Speaker, state Rep. David Cook (R-Mansfield), who has vowed to further cut Democrats out of the legislating process. LaHood recently signed on to support Cook in that race if elected.
In total, LaHood, a criminal defense attorney, raised $330,000 and spent $209,000 between July 1 and Sept. 26, with $109,000 still in the bank, on his most recent report.
Other major contributors included $50,000 from the Family Empowerment Coalition PAC, which supports school vouchers, $5,000 from the Texas Sands PAC, which wants to legalize casino gambling in Texas, $10,000 from the Coalition Por for Texas PAC, which wants to win over Hispanic voters to the Republican Party.
He also received $40,000 from Texans for Lawsuit Reform, an old ally of Allison which lobbies for tort reform. Abbott chipped in about $50,000 for polling and digital advertising.
State and national Democrats have been keeping a close eye on this race since the primary upset, helping fuel Swift’s campaign with even more money than LaHood’s in both of the most recent reporting periods.
Swift brought in roughly $378,000 haul between July 1 through Sept. 26, according to her report. She spent $193,000 and reported $57,000 on hand.
Roughly half of that haul was in-kind help, including $60,000 from the Texas House Democratic Campaign Committee and $75,000 from the Texas Democratic Party, which is sharing resources with the national party and the state’s U.S. Senate candidate for the first time this election cycle.
Another $10,000 came from the Lone Star Project, a Washington D.C.-based group that helps elect Democrats in Texas.
Swift also received $40,000 from Annie’s List, which helps elect Democratic women in Texas, $5,000 from Planned Parenthood’s political arm, which supports candidates who support abortion rights, and several smaller contributions from labor unions.
