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There鈥檚 a whole lot of potential change right now on the Texas political landscape. Texas Agriculture Commissioner has a challenger for his office from fellow Republican , a longtime lobbyist who will take on the colorful incumbent. It鈥檚 the most serious intra-party challenge to a sitting statewide official 鈥� at least so far.
After nude photos of him emerged online, Texas Congressman now faces a challenge from fellow Republican , a retired naval combat pilot and member of the Texas Veterans Commission.
Plus, state Rep. of the Dallas area is calling it quits after 13 terms. The Democrat is vice chairwoman of the powerful House State Affairs committee and chair of the Texas Legislative Black Caucus.
Filing season isn鈥檛 over yet, so there could be more to come.
, the manager of polling and research at the at the University of Texas at Austin, says there are a lot of reasons for the retirements we鈥檝e seen, though the number is still unusually high.
The Texas Politics Project studies what they call 鈥� .鈥� That鈥檚 the term for, Blank says, 鈥渨hen we go from one Congress to the next, how much of the delegation changes.鈥�
He says it looks like there鈥檚 currently a high level of churn. 鈥淎 lot of that could be Republicans looking at the 2018 midterms and saying, 鈥榊ou know, this is going to be difficult,鈥欌�� Blank says.
He says the retirements aren鈥檛 surprising. 鈥淲e know historically the president鈥檚 party in the midterm election after they鈥檙e elected tend to lose a lot of seats,鈥� he says.
Blank says Democrats see the retirements as Republicans running away from a challenging environment, but he says 鈥渋f you鈥檙e a Republican, you know there鈥檚 actually plenty of legitimate reasons why we鈥檝e seen so much turnover from Republican members in the congressional delegation.鈥� For instance, some members are finishing up their terms as powerful committee chairs and would prefer to retire than go to less interesting committees.
Still, Blank says some of the change could be happening because of current political conditions.
鈥淚 can鈥檛 imagine that any member of Congress feels like it鈥檚 fun to be in Congress right now,鈥� he says. 鈥淎nd I think that鈥檚 probably also true to some degree down to the state level. The rigid polarization, the inability to get things done, I think at some point it makes it easier to leave.鈥�
Written by Jen Rice.
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