Beleaguered Texas Republicans' latest threat: Coronavirus
exas was already one of the nation’s most-watched battlefields this year. Then came the pandemic.
Republicans and Democrats are brawling over a dozen House seats in the state's most expansive political landscape in recent memory — swing districts that also happen to encompass some of the worst-hit coronavirus hot spots in Texas.
Roughly 70 days before the election, Republican incumbents have been forced on the defensive by the pandemic, as Democrats pitch their health care platform and try to tag the GOP as irresponsible and anti-science.
Democrats are looking to flip as many as seven GOP seats, spanning the suburbs from San Antonio to Dallas to Houston, with several more in play that were hardly seen as competitive a few months ago. But the coronavirus, which has killed more than 11,000 Texans and infected a half-million more, has permeated the tightest races on issues from mask orders to health insurance to school openings, according to candidates and strategists in Texas.
“Every day, I talk to somebody who has Covid in their family ... When I talk to voters, that is definitely the number one issue to them,” said Sri Preston Kulkarni, who is running again for a sprawling seat outside Houston that he narrowly lost to GOP Rep. Pete Olson, who has since announced his retirement.
https://www.politico.com/news/2020/08/24/texas-republicans-coronavirus-401046