A late-session disagreement between state Rep. Marc LaHood (R-San Antonio) and one of the state’s most powerful lobbying entities is drawing a deluge of campaign spending into the freshman lawmaker’s first reelection race.
LaHood won the seat two years ago by beating out an incumbent Republican who was in lockstep with the state’s biggest GOP interests, but who drew significant opposition from party leaders after opposing Gov. Greg Abbott’s school voucher plan.
Now LaHood is in a similar position. He largely voted along party lines during his first session, but in the final days, dealt an unexpected blow to the group Texans for Lawsuit Reform (TLR), which said he walked out of a committee meeting to kill a pair of bills aimed at reining in lawsuits against big businesses.
That group is now spending big to boost a little-known challenger, David McArthur, a business consultant who started his career working in the George W. Bush White House, against LaHood in the March 3 primary.
The first-time candidate hauled in $573,000 between July 1 and Dec. 1, according to campaign finance reports filed Thursday.
About $350,000 of that came from TLR’s PAC, which went up on TV months ago with ads accusing LaHood of killing a conservative bill and then cashing in on campaign contributions from the same donors who back major Democrats.
The report indicates TLR has also funded some polling and grassroots campaign work for McArthur.
LaHood, meanwhile, reported spending $988,000 between July 1 and Dec. 31.
Much of that money came from trial lawyers and medical groups immediately after the session, LaHood’s most recent report indicated that the Texas Trial Lawyers Association PAC spent $18,400 on his behalf.
Another PAC that’s going up against TLR in several races, Citizens for Integrity and Accountability Foundation, has been coming to LaHood’s defense with ads saying he stood up to big insurance companies and held trucking companies accountable for accidents.
LaHood and McArthur are competing over Texas House District 121, a Northside district that stretches from Alamo Heights north to Stone Oak and Bulverde.
Meet the candidates running for the Texas Legislature in 2026
Of the 10 state legislative seats representing Bexar County, HD121 drew about $1.3 million in campaign spending in the second half of 2025, while the other races drew a combined $440,000 between 28 candidates’ semi-annual reports.
LaHood’s district has long favored Republicans, and has typically chosen members closely aligned with the business community, like Steve Allison and Joe Straus.
The winner of the March 3 primary will go up against Democrat Zack Dunn, a prosecutor in the Bexar County District Attorney’s Office, in November.
