Republican Marc LaHood secured 52.6%, to Democrat Laurel Jordan Swift’s 47.4% in the Texas House District 121 race after all Bexar County vote centers were counted Tuesday night.
This race sprung onto the political radar late this year, after an upset in the GOP primary renewed Texas Democrats’ hopes in a district they’d all but given up on trying to flip.
In the end, Republicans wound up outspending Democrats six-to-one trying to hold onto a seat their party expected to win easily if state House Rep. Steve Allison (R-Alamo Heights) had not lost in the primary.
At his election watch party Tuesday night, LaHood was surrounded by Trump supporters and GOP voters donning “Make America Great Again” caps, shirts and flags. Dressed in a white guayabera and cowboy boots, LaHood was stopped every few feet by supporters asking to take photos with him or pausing to give him early congratulations.
Despite the heavy emphasis on conservatives that night, LaHood’s brother, former Democratic Bexar County District Attorney Nicholas “Nico” LaHood, said his brother has “remained classy” throughout this election and continued to speak with voters across the political spectrum.
“He is going to represent those who disagree with him as well,” Nico LaHood said. “He’s done so well, I’m proud of him.”
LaHood’s election marks a rightward shift in a district that’s long favored moderates like former Texas Speaker Joe Straus (R) and state Rep. Elizabeth Ames (R).
Allison (R-Alamo Heights) had been winning reelection to the Northside district without trouble in recent years, but this year found himself at odds with state leaders after he voted to impeach Attorney General Ken Paxton and worked against Gov. Greg Abbott’s school voucher plan.
The division with party leaders came as Allison’s district had also been drawn slightly redder in redistricting, making him a ripe target for those working to push the Republican Party further right in Texas.
With Paxton and Abbott’s support, LaHood defeated Allison in the primary.
“This is not the same tri-cities, wealthy, white, college-educated, middle-of-the-road district that it was for a really long time,” San Antonio Republican strategist Kelton Morgan said of the changes made during redistricting.
“This district looks much different, and that was to Allison’s peril. … If 121 was being run on 2020 lines before it was redrawn, I think [Swift] would win there,” he added.
Swift, a political newcomer, sought to seize on the GOP divisions, in particular over school vouchers.
The orthopedic device saleswoman courted support from both parties and even picked up endorsements from Allison, the ousted-Republican, and former GOP state Sen. Jeff Wentworth, who both said it was critical to stop school vouchers.
Swift’s friends, family and supporters, including some Republicans, gathered at Stone Werks Grill for a watch party on Tuesday night.
“There was a lot of money, and a lot of inaccurate things said about me, but I think we closed a gap that’s been there for a long, long time,” said Swift, who noted that women who ran for her seat before her helped paved her way to a hard-fought race.
“I will find a way to make a career in this,” she said of her first political venture. “We have got to protect public education and we have got to make sure that our legislators understand that we want public education fully funded and no vouchers.”
Her daughter, Caroline Grassmuck, described seeing her mother’s ambition as she ran for the first time as inspiring.
“She and I would talk politics for years and she would always say, ‘Why doesn’t somebody do something, why are letting it get like this?’ until she decided to run,” Grassmuck said. “… It was nice to see her turn her life experience growing up in the district into a campaign to serve the district.”
LaHood, an attorney, caught the attention of local GOP leaders in 2022 with an energetic campaign against District Attorney Joe Gonzales (D), making him a top recruit to challenge Allison in the primary.
“My brother was the [District Attorney], my dad was a judge, and people would always ask me, ‘Hey, Marc, when are you going to run?'” LaHood said at a recent neighborhood association meeting. “My answer was not just, ‘No,’ but it was, ‘Heck no.'”
LaHood said he was motivated by the deteriorating quality of the public school system, which he hopes to help parents escape, through the creation of a school voucher program that would allow parents to use taxpayer money for private school tuition.
He’s received support from West Texas oil billionaires known for the Christian Nationalist views and vowed to push the House to the right with a new conservative House Speaker.
