Legislative Update

GENERAL ELECTION RECAP

HAA PAC endorsed candidates successful in 96.5% of races.

By STEPHANIE GRAVES, HAA Legislative Chair, with BRADLEY PEPPER, Vice President of Government Affairs

THIS YEAR SAW us elect nearly every state office from Governor to State Representative, as well as every member of our Congressional delegation. In addition, and of particular interest to us, we voted on all County Judges as well as some Commissioners, Judges and Justices of the Peace.

Elections have consequences and who we elect to offices up and down the ballot will have an impact on not only our industry, but our daily lives as well. It is critical that we continue to elect candidates that are pro-industry and follow the law.

HAA PAC members met with and screened candidates throughout this year. After collaborating with both NAA and TAA, we determined a list 86 candidates to support for this election. We are proud to say that 96.5% of HAA endorsed candidates were successful in their elections. Thank you for your support of the HAA PAC and the industry.

National

That red wave that was projected to sweep Republicans into control of both the House and Senate in Washington and Governor’s mansions and state legislatures across the country, it never crashed.

That said, the much-anticipated 2022 General Election is a wrap, well, kind of. At the time of printing, there is a runoff election for a Georgia Senate seat and 20 House races are still being counted from the November 8 election.

Control of the United States Senate will not change. Currently Democrats and Republicans hold 50 seats each, with Vice President Kamala Harris (D) as the deciding vote when there is a tie. Following the election, Democrats hold 50 seats and Republicans hold 49. After the Georgia runoff, it will be 50 - 50 again with VP Harris holding the tiebreaking vote or 51-49 in favor of Democrats.

The United States House of Representatives is still up for grabs, but it is likely that Republicans will reach the 218 seats necessary for a majority in that chamber. At press time, Republicans hold 217 seats and Democrats hold 204. While these results will likely flip the House to Republican control, it will be at a much smaller margin than had been forecasted.

Texas

Here in Texas though, our elections are mostly decided. All statewide races have been called. The Texas House of Representatives stands at 86 Republicans and 64 Democrats (Republicans gained one seat).

The Texas Senate still has one race that is too close to call. However, it will not impact control of the Senate chamber, as Republicans have actually gained one seat and hold 19 of the 31 seats at this time (that number could increase to 20).

For our state elected officials who do their business in Austin, it remained pretty much status quo and very red. Republicans won every statewide elected position, again. A Democrat has not won a statewide position since 1994. Republicans also continue to hold both chambers of the Texas Legislature, as they have done for the last 20 years.

Due to the population increases that were calculated from the Census, Texas added two new Congressional seats this cycle to increase our delegation to 38 members of Congress. After redistricting to draw new maps and some retirements, there were several open seats or current members of Congress who were running in different districts.

Even with these changes, after last months election, our Congressional delegation breakdown remained similar with Republicans (25) and Democrats (13) each adding one seat to their total.

While Democrats had made some gains in voting margins in races across the state over the last two elections cycles, last month saw most of those gains erased and Republicans reestablish Texas as very much a red state for the foreseeable future.

That said, even with all indicators (inflation, crime, President Biden’s approval rating) predicting additional pickups for Republicans in the Texas Congressional delegation and the Texas House of Representatives, that optimism was quickly muted on election night when those gains did not materialize.

This is very similar to what the Democrats experienced in 2020. With the enthusiasm from the 2018 elections, President Trump at the top of the ticket, the unprecedented amount of out of state special interest money focused on flipping the Texas House, Texas Democrats were poised to make Texas purple and then … it did not happen.

All statewide races stayed in Republican control. Our Congressional delegation kept the same split. Democrats picked up one seat in the Texas Senate and flip flopped a couple of seats in the Texas House which resulted in no net pick-ups for either party.

So with all of the resources and energy used over the last two cycles, what we know is, the more things change the more they stay the same.

Local

While the numbers show that Texas is a red state, it is hard for the numbers not to show that Harris County is a blue county. Even with Republicans running in county races far outpacing the top of the ticket statewide elected Republicans, they still came up short in virtually every countywide race.

There was an unprecedented amount of money, resources and attention focused on the race for Harris County Judge and judicial races as a whole. This helped narrow the margins, but was not quite enough to get over the hump. Prior to this election, a Republican had not won countywide since 2014.

In Harris County, we saw Governor Greg Abbott (R) receive 44.5% of the vote to Beto O’Rourke’s (D) 54% and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick (R) received 44% to Mike Collier’s (D) 53%.

The biggest race in our area was for control of the Harris County Commissioners Court and specifically, the races for Harris County Judge and Commissioner for Precinct 4. Currently the Court is comprised of three Democrats and two Republicans.

In a race that was not predicted to be this close six months ago, Republican for Harris County Judge Alex Mealer came up a little short, receiving 532,602 votes (49.19%) to incumbent Democrat Judge Lina Hidalgo’s 549,999 votes (50.79%).

In a precinct that had largely been redrawn to favor a Democrat, longtime incumbent Commissioner Jack Cagle (R) received 114,233 of the votes (48.35%) to Democratic challenger Leslie Briones’ 122,044 votes (51.65%).

Judicial races up and down the ballot were much closer than the Republican/Democratic split for the non-judicial statewide races. Republicans even won five benches out of 64 county judicial races. In all the judicial races, Republicans were no more than 5% behind and most were within 3%.

HAA PAC endorsed candidates were successful in all but one judicial race across Harris, Fort Bend, Brazoria and Montgomery counties.

Overall, the 96.5% success rate of HAA PAC endorsed candidates is something we can all be proud of. Now as we move forward, we will continue to work with elected officials, both new and old, on educating them to the needs of our industry and the impacts of that their actions could have on affordable housing.

In addition to the races listed above, here are the outcomes to a few of the races that we have been following:

U.S. Congress

Congressional District 8 (Harris, Montgomery, San Jacinto, Walker Counties) – In the race to replacing retiring Rep. Kevin Brady, Republican Morgan Luttrell defeated Democrat Laura Jones.

Congressional District 38 (Memorial, West Houston, Spring Branch, Northwest Harris) – In this newly drawn Congressional seat, Republican Wesley Hunt defeated Democrat Duncan Klussmann.

Texas House of Representatives

House District 76 (Fort Bend) – In this newly drawn seat, HAA PAC endorsed Suleman Lalani defeated Republican Dan Mathews.

House District 133 (Memorial Villages, Tanglewood, West Houston) – Running to replace longtime Rep. Jim Murphy, HAA PAC endorsed Republican Mano DeAyala defeated Democrat Mohamad Maarouf.

Harris County

County Commissioner Precinct 2 – HAA PAC endorsed incumbent Commissioner Adrian Garcia (D) defeated former Commissioner Jack Morman (R).

Justice of the Peace, Precinct 5, Place 2 - In the race to replace retiring JP Jeff Williams, HAA PAC endorsed Bob Wolfe (R) defeated Roderick D. Rodgers (D).

Fort Bend County County Judge – HAA PAC endorsed Incumbent Democratic

Judge KP George former Republican Constable Trevor Nehls. County Commissioner Precinct 4 – Dexter McCoy (D) defeated Ray Aguilar (R) to replace outgoing Commissioner Ken DeMerchant.