WASHINGTON -- Could fallout from the House impeachment vote affect congressional races in Texas?
Five Texas lawmakers--two freshmen Democrats and three veteran Republicans--face challengers taking them to task for their party loyalty in the votes to formally accuse President Donald Trump of abusing his office and obstruction of the congressional inquiry.
While the vast majority of districts nationwide are safe turf for one party or the other, these five Texans hold battleground districts.
In Dallas, Rep. Colin Allred ousted 11-term GOP congressman Pete Sessions last year. In Houston, Rep. Lizzie Fletcher ended John Culberson’s career after nine terms.
Both waited until after the Judiciary Committee recommended two articles of impeachment before declaring their support, making them two of the last holdouts in either party to reveal their intentions ahead of Wednesday’s historic votes.
Republicans are determined to win back those seats and have quickly begun bashing them over impeachment.
“I am deeply saddened by what Colin Allred and his Democrat Socialists have done,” Republican businesswoman Genevieve Collins wrote in an email blast to supporters. “The partisan impeachment proceedings have been an embarrassment….He and the rest of the Democrat Socialists are only focused on one person instead of serving 330 million Americans.”
When Allred declared his intention to vote for impeachment, Collins pounced, calling him “a puppet of Nancy Pelosi, Adam Schiff, and the far left.”
Republicans have predicted that Allred’s vote could cost his seat, a threat the former pro football player and civil rights lawyer shrugged off.
"I’m not really worried about the politics. I don’t think you should make a decision like this based on politics,” he said. “It should be about what’s best for the country. The evidence is clear that what happened was a severe abuse of power to smear a domestic political rival.
“No one has actually at any point said that those facts did not occur. In my opinion, in this country, we can’t allow that to happen,” he said.
Three vulnerable GOP lawmakers who opposed impeachment face pressure, too, from Democrats accusing them of enabling a lawless president.
And remarkably, candidates in both parties are grabbing hold of the contentious issue. Unlike many hot button topics -- like gun rights, abortion and taxes -- impeachment inflames passions on both sides almost symmetrically.
“What you’re seeing is emblematic of a state in flux…. It’s going to be a dogfight for the next 11 months,” said Nancy Beck Cook, chair of the University of Houston history department.
For Democrats, “outright disgust” with Trump makes impeachment a potent issue. For Republicans, outrage at an effort to push aside an elected president presiding over a health economy is palpable, and Trump has stoked it relentlessly.
Not that many voters will be swayed.
“The three undecided people have been on Mars, in a coma. People have their minds made up,” Cook said.
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Freshman Rep. Chip Roy, an Austin Republican and former chief of staff to Sen. Ted Cruz, won his seat with just 50.2% last year.
Democrats are eager to topple him, and he faces one of the most high-profile challengers in the state: Wendy Davis, former state senator and Democratic nominee for governor in 2014, the year after she gained national fame with a 13-hour filibuster to block new abortion restrictions.
She lauded the pro-impeachment lawmakers for “courage” and “the commitment to country over party that this moment demands,” but declined to weigh in directly on Roy’s vote or how she expects the issue to play out in the race.
Like Allred across the aisle, Roy insists that he didn’t cast his vote with political benefit or risk in mind, and isn’t worried about blowback.
“I see why certain politicians – I won't get into any names – might want to make hay out of this sort of thing. I say good luck selling it,” Roy said. “The people I talk to throughout Texas 21 are sick of the political theater in Washington and have moved past impeachment and really want us to focus on what matters.”
As president-elect, Trump put Rep. Michael McCaul of Austin on his short list for homeland security secretary. He eyed McCaul again eight months later when the job opened again.
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The 8-term Texas Republican eked out a win with just 51% of the vote last year. Democrats are coming for him again, and they’re using his opposition to impeachment as a bludgeon.
“McCaul has sworn an oath to defend the Constitution, but instead he’s only protecting his personal political ambition,” said last year’s challenger, Mike Siegel, a civil rights lawyer angling for another shot at McCaul in 2020. “He’s just sucking up to Trump to keep his own privilege and power.”
McCaul serves as the top Republican on the House foreign affairs committee, after a stint as homeland security chairman. He was a federal prosecutor before coming to Washington.
Said Siegel, that means he “should know that when Congress appropriates aid, it’s to advance U.S. foreign policy interests. When the president withholds that aid to advance his personal agenda, that’s an abuse of power and it’s against the Constitution.”
McCaul defends his stance, blasting impeachment as a rush to judgment.
“I don’t think this is what the American people elected us to do,” he said. “It’s very damaging to the country. It’s dividing this nation and people are polarized.”
As for the political implications, he expects a boost, not a penalty for his stance.
“I think it will be in my favor. A vote for impeachment is very unpopular back in my home state and in my district,” he said. “It would be like indicting a case based on doing 30% of the investigation.”
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In Texas’ Hill Country, Rep. John Carter, a Republican from Round Rock, north of Austin, survived a close call last year with just 50.6%.
It’s one of the many battlegrounds where the incumbent and challengers alike have grabbed onto impeachment as a potent issue.
“I don't know if John Carter made a political calculation or not [but] this is a constitutional question, not a political question,” said Democrat Christine Eady Mann.
Mann, a physician, lost the primary runoff last year to M.J. Hegar, the former helicopter combat pilot who fell 8,000 votes short against Carter. She’s one of 11 Democrats angling for a shot at Carter in 2020, as Hegar runs for Sen. John Cornyn’s seat.
Carter has tried to harness passions over impeachment as he seeks a 10th term, accusing Democrats of “weaponizing” a last-resort Constitutional tool.
Impeachment is one of the most serious acts that Congress will undertake, it should not be taken lightly or used to strong arm those you disagree with politically. It’s irresponsible that the Democrats have weaponized the impeachment process to appease their voting base.
— Judge Carter (@JudgeCarter) December 19, 2019
17 of the 24 Democratic members on House Judiciary voted to impeach President Trump well before his call with the Ukraine. This isn’t about justice, this is about politics. We must win back the House to stop these Democrat antics. Donate today https://t.co/3KJSkHcv1P pic.twitter.com/c1DnuNim9U
— John Carter (@JudgeJohnCarter) December 18, 2019
"As a former judge, I found that this entire impeachment process lacked impartiality, respect for the Constitution and justice, and a majority of my constituents felt the same way,” he said Friday. “The impeachment vote wasn't about justice or upholding the rule of law, it was about Democrats playing politics. The American people see that and they won't easily forget it next year."
Both Carter and Mann have cited impeachment in appeals for donations.
“John Carter should have upheld his oath of office to defend the Constitution and to vote to impeach a president who has shown clearly that he is acting in his own best interest and not the interest of the country,” Mann said by phone on Friday.
Impeachment isn’t usually the first topic that voters mention to her, she said, but removing Trump from office is. And in any case, she added, defending the Constitution isn’t optional.
“Leaders make decisions based on their oath of office. And sometimes that goes against what some of their voters want,” she said. “None of us should be thinking about the politics of it or the optics of it.”
In Houston, Fletcher is hoping for a second term in a traditionally Republican district once held by George Bush, the future president.
She ousted Culberson by a fairly decisive 5% margin but like her fellow freshman in Dallas, Allred, she never promoted impeachment.
During a hotly contested primary in spring 2018, the national party’s House campaign arm took the unusual step of releasing opposition research on her more liberal rival, Laura Moser, whose agenda included the swift impeachment of Trump.
“Fletcher has been very good at being nonconfrontational,” said Cook, the University of Houston professor, adding that in a district like hers, “Caution will not be hurtful with the majority of voters.”
That hasn’t stopped Army veteran Wesley Hunt, the best-funded candidate in a competitive GOP primary, from taking the incumbent to task.
“Lizzie Fletcher had her mind made up well before any of the facts came out,” Hunt said in a statement. “Fletcher won in 2018 by promising to be independent and work with Republicans. She has broken her promise by voting with Nancy Pelosi 100% of the time and rubber stamping impeachment. Fletcher is just another liberal politician who puts ideology over bipartisan cooperation and results.”
Fletcher declined to discuss the political dimensions of impeachment, or her rationale. She did send constituents a lengthy email defending her votes.
“The president abused the power of his office—and our trust—in conditioning actions in our national security interest on receiving a personal political benefit,” she wrote.
Many Republicans, she wrote, “suggested that the impeachment articles were really related to policy disagreements, political allegiance, and personal animosity. This is simply not the case. It is true that I did not vote for President Trump in 2016. I do not agree with him on many issues of policy. I am not a member of his party. And I am deeply concerned with his divisive rhetoric.
“But that is not why I voted to impeach him.”
Washington correspondent Tom Benning contributed reporting.
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Impeachment, a rare hot button for both sides, emerges as key topic in Texas congressional fights - The Dallas Morning News
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