Houston Chronicle by Erica Grieder July 20, 2019
Houston City Councilwoman Amanda Edwards isn’t afraid of a competitive race. In 2015, she finished first in an eight-way race for At-Large Position 4, then cruised to victory in a runoff. And that’s good, because the municipal finance attorney could face two similarly competitive contests in 2020.
Edwards on Thursday announced that she is seeking the Democratic nomination for the U.S. Senate seat held by Republican John Cornyn, a powerful and well-funded incumbent who has yet to draw a serious challenger in the GOP primary.
But Edwards will first have to survive a crowded primary. The Democratic field already includes former Houston congressman Chris Bell, Air Force combat veteran MJ Hegar, and activist Sema Hernandez. State Sen. Royce West of Dallas is expected to formally declare his own bid for the Senate on Monday. And there are other Democrats known to be eyeing the Senate race — or being eyed, perhaps, by wistful Democrats who see them as potentially strong candidates.
Beto O’Rourke has so far stuck by his decision to launch a long-shot bid for president rather than for the Senate, following his impressive campaign last year against Texas’ other GOP senator, Ted Cruz..
The sheer number of plausible Democratic candidates for Senate in 2010 is telling. The last time Cornyn was on the ballot, in 2014, Texas was such a safe red state that Democrats struggled to muster credible candidates, much less competitive ones, for statewide races. The real contest, in that cycle, was in the Republican primary, which Cornyn won with 60 percent of the vote before cruising to a 26-point general election win.
But Cornyn himself has been among the Republicans sounding the alarm in the wake of the 2018 midterms that, this time, Democrats truly do pose a real threat.
“We are, I think, no longer the reliably red state we have been,†he told the Texas Tribune’s Abby Livingston last month.
More:
https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/columnists/grieder/article/Amanda-Edwards-is-someone-to-watch-in-Democratic-14109711.php
