Another Bush Fails To Make It Out Of A GOP Primary, This Time In Texas

In December we looked at Republican congressional candidate Pierce Bush, the grandson of George H.W. Bush who was planning to run against freshman Democratic backbencher Lizzie Fletcher in gramps' old Houston seat, but switched districts when Republican Pete Olson announced he was retiring (TX-22). Despite the lineage, of because of it, and despite the endorsement from Olson, Bush came in third last night.

Tuesday night's no-runoff winner on the Democratic side was Sri Preston Kulkarni, who came close to beating Olson in 2018-- 51.4% to 46.5%, helping persuade Olson that it is time to retire. It's still a red-leaning district in the Houston suburbs (primarily transitioning Fort Bend County) that was once Tom DeLay's base. The PVI is R+10 and Trump beat Hillary there 52.1% to 44.2%.

As of the February 12 FEC filling deadline, 3 candidates had raised over a million dollars-- Kulkarni plus self-funder Kathaleen Wall and Bush. These were the top GOP raisers:

• Kathaleen Wall- $3,257,886 ($3,245,467 self-funded)
• Pierce Bush- $1,088,159
• Green Hill- $395,740
• Troy Nehls- $299,650

The only 6-figure independent spending in the primary was $138,495 to run this pathetically ineffective ad by a Bush family sewer money PAC, Texans Coming Together.





It's worth mentioning that in 2018, Kathaleen Wall spent $6,206,351 of her own money in her losing race in TX-02. She is expected to spend as much in her runoff battle against Nehls. Other dynamics in the race is that Bush didn't live in the district and was successfully labeled a carpetbagger. His competitors turned the primary-- at least in part-- into a referendum of the Bush name, which Trump has basically destroyed.