Six candidates file for special election to replace Sen. Fallon in Senate District 30
Six candidates have set their sights on replacing outgoing Sen. Pat Fallon in the Texas Senate.
They range from current state Rep. Drew Springer, a Republican from Muenster, who was first elected to the legislature in 2012, to Dallas salon owner Shelley Luther, who made national news for defying orders to shut down her salon amid the novel cornavirus’ outbreak this May.
Of the six candidates who filed with the Texas Secretary of State’s Office on Friday, five are running as Republicans, with Jacob Minter, a Collin County electrician and recording secretary for the IBEW Local 20 union, running as the sole Democrat.
In addition to Springer and Luther, the other Republican candidates include Denton Mayor Chris Watts, Craig Carter, a small business owner who ran for the Republican nomination for Senate District 30 in 2018, and Andy Hopper, a Decatur software engineer who is a member of the Texas State Guard.
Senate District 30 spans 15 counties, and includes parts of the counties of Collin and Denton. The district stretches west as far as the counties of Wichita, Archer, Wise, and Young.
Fallon, a Republican from Prosper, is running to represent Texas’ 4th Congressional District — which opened after former U.S. Rep. John Ratcliffe was confirmed as the director of national intelligence in May. Fallon will face Democratic nominee Russell Foster this November, who will face an uphill battle in the reliably red congressional district where Ratcliffe won over 75% of the vote in 2018.
Gov. Greg Abbott announced the emergency special election for Fallon’s seat on Sunday, and cited the need for the district to be represented when the Legislature convenes in January amid the pandemic.
Springer announced his campaign shortly after, and has already rolled out the endorsements of roughly 30 fellow state lawmakers, including Fallon and some of Tarrant County’s Republican delegation, like Reps. Craig Goldman, Bill Zedler, Matt Krause and Giovanni Capriglione.
Luther, announced she was entering the race at a Back the Blue rally in Denton last weekend. While Springer has touted his conservative record of supporting 2nd Amendment rights and anti-abortion policies during his eight years in the legislature, Luther positioned herself, in a statement Thursday, as “detached from the Austin establishment.”
“I’m just a normal person whose life and livelihood was threatened by the government. I realize the need for real people who recognize the real problems that face our state,” Luther said.
First elected to serve as Denton’s mayor in 2014, Watts resigned Thursday, and told the Wichita Falls Times Record News he will continue to serve in his position until a successor is chosen.
Carter has touted himself as “a working man’s conservative” and is the owner of the Old Boot Factory, which has locations across the Dallas-Fort Worth area. In the 2018 Republican primary for Senate District 30, he earned about 15% of the vote between his two other opponents.
On Hopper’s campaign website, he highlighted his support for supporting farmers by reducing regulation and measures to bolster Texas’ law enforcement and military.
Minter, the lone Democrat running, said in a news release on Friday that one of his priorities would be to address access and affordability to health care, especially in rural areas.
“Every single day I speak to people from all walks of life who are tired of the ugly politics, the high cost of health care and the fact that we are near the bottom of funding for education in our state,” Minter said in a statement. “For too long, the politics of divisiveness has held Texas back from accomplishing our highest good.”
Early voting in the special election for Senate District 30 begins Monday, Sept. 14. Election Day is Tuesday, Sept. 29.
