Republicans' race to the bottom in new Texas swing district
This race has been amusing https://www.politico.com/news/2020/07/14/texas-kathaleen-wall-troy-nehls-361255?fbclid=IwAR0CAMbB5_-wJG_FBQd0RSVPhAyY4FxTkZvV-LCV5F1QsQmuiiRd9LMjhCQ
After emerging from a 15-candidate March primary, Republican megadonor Kathaleen Wall and Fort Bend County Sheriff Troy Nehls found themselves locked in a nasty, race-to-the-right runoff that's left them bear-hugging the president in a suburban district that is trending to the center as Trump is losing ground.
The final weeks have brought Republicans even more headaches. Wall went nuclear, tapping her personal wealth to run millions of dollars worth of TV ads featuring a sex-trafficking victim and her family excoriating Nehls for failing to protect them. Nehls bested Wall by 21 points in the primary, but even Nehls' allies worry her attack ads have bloodied the GOP frontrunner.
"Kathaleen Wall couldnt be doing more for the Democrat Party than she is now," said Mike Gibson, a former Fort Bend County GOP chair who is backing Nehls. "Because shes going to lose. Troy is going to win, and now theyre going to have all this stuff that they can also bring up."
The district, a longtime GOP bastion which former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay drew for himself, has quickly transformed into fiercely competitive territory, the result of an explosion of immigrant communities and the growing suburban rejection of Trump. Incumbent GOP Rep. Pete Olson, who won a much closer-than-expected race in 2018, is retiring rather than run again.