Mike Siegel Heads To A TX-10 Runoff

As of the last FEC filing deadline in the TX-10 3-way primary-- February 12-- about $2 million had been spent by the Democrats' campaigns.

• Shannon Hutcheson- $915,411, of which $361,550 was self-funded
• Pritesh Gandhi- $772,486
• Mike Siegel- $348,908

The only outside sewer money that seeped into the race was $364,440-- much of it used to smear Hutcheson on behalf of Gandhi-- from the 314 Action PAC, a sham outfit pretending to care about Science while really devoted almost exclusively to lining the pockets of their principles. But as you can see, votes went to candidates inversely from money spent:

Mike Siegel's haul at the ballotbox Tuesday was significantly ahead of the 314 runner up-- but not enough to avoid a May 26th runoff. This isn't good. Siegel should be spending the next 3 months hammering Trump ally Michael McCaul, not being drawn into a battle with 314 and its anti-Medicare-for-All, anti-Green New Deal candidate. Please consider contributing what you can to Mike's campaign, which you can do by clicking on the Turning Texas Blue thermometer on the right.

"This campaign, Mike told me today, "continues to show how Democrats win in Texas: with people power! In 2018, we shocked countless observers when we held ultra-wealthy GOP incumbent Michael McCaul to 51% of the vote and turned the Texas 10th into a battleground district. And on Election Day we did the same: facing two well-funded opponents and an outside 'super PAC' who, together, spent over $2.5 million, we claimed a resounding victory. This is campaign is the only one that can beat the wealth and gerrymandered advantage of Rep. McCaul. We will keep working the district, knocking doors, and building an unstoppable coalition to demand real political change here in TX-10."

On Wednesday, Intercept politics editor Ryan Grim noted that "In 2018, the 10th Congressional District-- which stretches from the Austin suburbs to the Houston suburbs-- was written off by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, having gone to incumbent Michael McCaul in 2016 by 19 points. But Siegel, with a focus on organizing a major field operation, closed it to within 5 points. That drew the attention of deep-pocketed donors, who fielded corporate management lawyer Shannon Hutcheson to challenge Siegel for the nomination. Pritesh Gandhi, a doctor who is running to the left of Hutcheson but to the right of Siegel, also jumped into the race, setting up what looked like it could be a rerun of a knockdown, drag-out primary in California that followed a similar trajectory... The two other candidates spent the final weeks of the race attacking each other. A hybrid Super PAC backing Gandhi spent big attacking Hutcheson. Hutcheson, meanwhile, was the clear Washington favorite. She has been dogged in the primary by her corporate law work, particularly her defense of a prison guard accused of assaulting migrants, among other controversial cases. She voted in the 2010 Republican primary, the year of the tea party backlash to President Barack Obama, and has the strong support of her husband’s law firm, which is connected to the Texas GOP machinery."