Texas elections: Abortion a central issue in House District 91 Republican runoff
Abortion has become a central issue in a Republican House race where incumbent Stephanie Klick is on the defense as her opponent David Lowe asserts she’s not conservative enough.
Voters on May 24 will pick between Klick, who has represented House District 91 since 2013, and Lowe, a stay at home dad who was one of four Republicans trying to unseat the representative. The winner will all but certainly represent the district, as no Democrat is running in the November general election.
Klick, who is a nurse, drew more opponents in the first round of the primaries than any Republican incumbent House candidate in the state. Klick was the top vote-getter with 49% of votes to Lowe’s 39%.
Low turnout in primary runoffs makes it difficult to predict election outcomes, said TCU political science professor Jim Riddlesperger.
“Based upon the first primary, you have to say the advantage is clearly with Stephanie Klick, but of course the advantage doesn’t necessarily mean that she’ll win,” he said.
Lowe has focused on conservative social issues during his campaign. In a mailer for the runoff, he advocated securing elections and borders, freezing property taxes, stopping critical race theory and “indoctrination” and protecting children from “‘Woke’ Nonsense.”
He has criticized Klick, who chairs the House’s Public Health Committee, for not doing enough to bar transgender children from receiving access to gender affirming health care. (Klick points out that a bill passed out of her committee that would have done just that.)
He’s advocated for a bill that criminalizes abortion.
“I will never apologize for trying to abolish abortion,” he said at a Fort Worth forum in March.
Lowe declined an interview, but requested questions be sent by email. He did not reply to the email.
Klick said Lowe is being dishonest in his representation of her positions on issues like abortion, a topic that has gotten attention in the weeks leading up to the election after it surfaced in a leaked draft opinion reported by Politico that the U.S. Supreme Court may overturn Roe v. Wade and remand the issue back to the states. The landmark case legalized abortion in the country.
Klick pointed to her support for Senate Bill 8 as a joint author, which effectively bans abortions after about six weeks of pregnancy. She also authored a bill that restricts access to medication abortions and sponsored the Senate version that ultimately passed into law.
She said the legislation Lowe supports would criminalize women who’ve had an abortion, including up to the death penalty.
“I think the goal for conservatives is to abolish abortion, but I think we can do that — in fact we may be very close to doing that depending on what the Supreme Court does with Roe v. Wade — without taking the life of the women,” she said. “Women who are in a crisis pregnancy need care and compassion not execution.”
Abortion alternatives must also be funded to support those in a crisis pregnancy, said Klick, who is endorsed by several anti-abortion groups.
“It’s not enough to be pro-life, you’ve got to be pro-love for these women that are in crisis situations,” she said.
Lowe too has taken issue with campaign-trail messages from his opponent. A radio ad from Klick’s campaign features a clip of what appears to be Lowe saying he’d stand on the House floor and “vote no on any pro-life bill.” But on his website, he says the words were taken out of context. He goes on to say, “the only thing we need to do in abolish abortion.”
“If you’re trying to regulate abortion instead of abolish abortion, you’re not thinking about the little babies that are being murdered,” he said.
He also called an mailer from a policing PAC “incredibly misleading” after the group said he owned a website called FindSomeSex.com. In a statement, Lowe said that more than a decade ago, he bought and sold web domains in bulk solely to resell them.
Klick has taken steps to highlight her conservative record in the Texas Legislature. In April she released a television ad featuring Tarrant County Sheriff Bill Waybourn that accuses the “radical left” of wanting to defund police and put criminals back out on the street and ends with the tagline “pro-life conservative Stephanie Klick, defending our values.”
Lowe is backed by the True Texas Project, which was recently named on Southern Poverty Law Center’s list of extremist groups as a general anti-government organization.
Both candidates have said property taxes is a major issue they’re hearing on the campaign trail. Klick said she had been encouraging voters to support two constitutional amendments that were on the ballot earlier this month following the convening of the legislature last year. Lowe in a Facebook video vows to write a bill to freeze property tax appraisals for at least four years while a long term solution is explored.
This story was originally published May 16, 2022 at 5:00 AM.
CORRECTION: This story has been updated to correct the date of the runoff election day.
