This North Texas congressional race is drawing big dollars from Democrats, Republicans
One of the most high-profile, big-dollar congressional races in the nation is taking place in North Texas.
District 24, which stretches from Hurst to DFW Airport, Grapevine, Carrollton and Addison, features two women who are solidly backed by their respective parties.
Republican Beth Van Duyne, a former Irving mayor, has been endorsed by President Trump and is running on a classic law-and-order platform. Her opponent, Democrat Candace Valenzuela, is campaigning on many of her party’s national themes such as better health care.
“It’s security and order, versus protests and social justice,” said Matthew Eshbaugh-Soha, political science professor at the University of North Texas in Denton.
The candidates have amassed plenty of funding for the final weeks of the campaign. As of June 30, the most recent federal election filing period, Van Duyne had raised $1.43 million compared to $1.11 million for Valenzuela, according to OpenSecrets.org.
Observers expect both candidates to disclose much more funding when the next federal filings are due at the end of September.
The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC), an organization that is the official campaign arm of Democrats in the House of Representatives, has identified District 24 as a race that can be flipped in favor of Democrats.
The race is considered a toss-up by most observers, including the Cook Political Report and Inside Elections. Sabato’s Crystal Ball at the University of Virginia Center for Politics ranks the contest as “leans Democratic.”
District 24 was named by CNN among the 10 House districts most likely to flip in 2020.
Changing population
District 24, which includes Northeast Tarrant County and parts of Dallas and Denton counties, was once firmly Republican. But U.S. Rep. Kenny Marchant, who had served in Congress since 2005, barely squeaked out a win in 2018 against a little-known opponent, and opted to retire before this year’s campaign.
“It’s an open seat,” Eshbaugh-Soha said. “Once you take out the incumbent, that changes the dynamic. It’s an opportunity for the Democrats to take the seat.”
The district is becoming increasingly diverse. The district is about 25% Hispanic, 14% Asian and 14% Black, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. More than 26% of people living in the district are foreign-born, the agency reports.
Voters in District 24 supported Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney by 22 percentage points in 2012, but supported Trump by 6 percentage points in 2016. In 2018, district voters supported Democratic candidate Beto O’Rourke by 3.5 points over Republican incumbent Sen. Ted Cruz in the U.S. Senate race.
Pro-police platform
Van Duyne, 49, served as Irving mayor from 2011-17, when she was appointed by Trump as a regional administrator for Housing and Urban Development. She resigned from HUD last year to run for Congress, and in February received Trump’s endorsement.
She also is no stranger to controversy.
In 2015, after a 14-year-old Muslim boy was arrested for bringing a homemade clock to an Irving school — a device school officials thought could be a bomb — Van Duyne sided with police and school officials, arguing that they had the community’s safety in mind. Also that year, she backed an effort to ban sharia law in U.S. courts, after a right-wing publication made a false allegation that Muslim laws were being used in Dallas-Fort Worth courtrooms.
But Van Duyne also has broad support from local officials in her district, many of whom she has worked with on bipartisan issues, such as addressing the region’s traffic and transportation problems.
Van Duyne said she hopes that undecided voters will see her as a pragmatic, solutions-driven elected leader.
“Supporting the police, building jobs in the economy — those should not be partisan issues,” Van Duyne said in a phone interview.
“I run on my own platform with my own positions,” she said. “I feel comfortable that I have the experience to do the job. I’m a pragmatist. I just want to get stuff done, and I am willing to work with anyone in the room.”
Van Duyne is a single mother of two children. The oldest is in college and the youngest recently graduated from high school.
Healthcare, jobs
Valenzuela, 36, is an educator who became active in politics in 2017, when she won a seat on the Carrollton-Farmers Branch school district board. She resigned from that position to run for Congress.
Valenzuela, the daughter of Army parents, was raised in El Paso. She has spoken many times about her family briefly being homeless, and how that experience motivated her in adulthood to help others.
She said she was the first person in her family to graduate from college. She attended Claremont McKenna College in California on a scholarship.
Valenzuela said her messages of a need for more affordable health care and higher education are resonating well with residents of the district.
“These are folks who did everything right, and moved to a great place to raise their kids,” Valenzuela said in a phone interview. “They’re not seeing a return on the investments they have made in their lives. The cost of health care is through the roof. The cost of child care is as much as their rent or mortgage. ”
Valenzuela and her husband live in Dallas and have two young children.
This story was originally published September 8, 2020 at 5:30 AM.
