Welcome to the Thursday, February 3, Brew.
By: David Luchs
Here’s what’s in store for you as you start your day:
- Five U.S. House elections this year feature two incumbents running in the same district
- Nine out of 11 Republicans running in Texas’ 8th Congressional District complete Ballotpedia’s Candidate Connection survey
- Ohio statewide candidate filing deadline passes
Five U.S. House elections this year feature two incumbents running in the same district
Currently, five U.S. House races have had multiple incumbents declare their candidacy for the 2022 elections. All five districts are in states that have enacted new congressional district boundaries after the 2020 census, and all feature two candidates from the same party running against each other in the primary. Three of these districts have two Democratic incumbents running against one another and the remaining two have two Republicans.
Here are the districts with two incumbents facing each other:
- Rep. Carolyn Bourdeaux (D) and Rep. Lucy McBath (D) for Georgia’s 7th
- Rep. Sean Casten (D) and Rep. Marie Newman (D) for Illinois’ 6th
- Rep. Rodney Davis (R) and Rep. Mary Miller (R) for Illinois’ 15th
- Rep. Andy Levin (D) and Rep. Haley Stevens (D) for Michigan’s 11th
- Rep. David McKinley (R) and Rep. Alex Mooney (R) for West Virginia’s 2nd
Illinois, Michigan, and West Virginia all lost one seat each as a result of apportionment after the 2020 census.
Another incumbent versus incumbent election could develop in Michigan’s 4th Congressional District, which was redrawn following the 2020 census to include the homes of U.S. Reps. Fred Upton (R) and Bill Huizenga (R).
After the 2010 census, there were 13 districts where multiple incumbents ran against each other in the 2012 elections. Eleven of those races featured candidates from the same party, and two had a Democrat and a Republican run for the same district in the general election. In the two districts with one incumbent from each party, both were won by the Republican candidate.
Multiple candidates may run in the same district if after redistricting, their home addresses or political bases of support are drawn into the same district, or if they determine that the characteristics of a particular district are more favorable for re-election.
The U.S. Constitution requires that members of the U.S. House of Representatives are residents of the state from which he or she is elected. However, it does not require them to live in the district that they represent.
Race spotlight: Texas’ 8th Congressional District Republican primary election
On March 1, Texas will kick off the 2022 primary season. Over the course of this year, we’ll be bringing you a look at some of our coverage of Democratic and Republican primary elections.
Yesterday, we told you about the Democratic primary in Texas’ 28th Congressional District. Today, we’ll be taking a look at the Republican primary in Texas’ 8th Congressional District.
What can you tell me about the district? Texas’ 8th Congressional District is located north of Houston and has been represented by U.S. Rep. Kevin Brady (R), who is not running for re-election this year, since 1997. In the round of redistricting following the 2020 census, the northern portion of the old district, including most of Houston, Leon, Madison, and Trinity counties was reapportioned into the new 17th District. In exchange, the 8th district was extended eastward to include Polk County.
What’s the story? Eleven candidates will seek the Republican nomination for U.S. House in Texas’ 8th Congressional District in the March 1 primary this year. Election forecasters rate the seat as Solid Republican, meaning they expect the winner of the Republican primary will be all but certain to win the general election.
Local political observers have focused on Christian Collins, who has endorsements from U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz (R), and Morgan Luttrell, whose endorsers include former Gov. Rick Perry (R) and U.S. Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R). Collins and Luttrell are among nine candidates who completed Balloptedia’s Candidate Connection survey.
Both candidates answered the survey question asking what area of public policy they were most personally passionate about.
Collins said,
“Christian’s top three issues are fighting for election integrity, working to finish the wall and secure the border, and fighting against the radical indoctrination of our youth and backing pro-America education.
This isn’t to say that he is not passionate about other issues too, but he believes that if we don’t tackle these three issues first then we aren’t going to have a country.”
Luttrell said,
“Our freedoms are under the constant threat of the socialist agenda. The radical left is waging a culture war on Texan’s very way of life. Like you, I will not allow the conservative values we’re teaching our children to be threatened by DC. As our Congressman, I will bring bold leadership, put America first, fight to finish the Wall, stop radical indoctrination in our kids’ classrooms, defend from increasing cybersecurity threats, stand with Israel, and protect America from the threat of Russia and China and socialists here at home.”
The candidate filing deadline for this election was Dec. 13. In the event that no candidate wins more than 50% of votes in the primary, the top two finishers will advance to a May 24 runoff.
Ohio statewide candidate filing deadline passes
The filing deadline for candidates running for statewide office and state legislative seats in Ohio was yesterday, Feb. 2. Candidates running for U.S. House have until March 4 to file.
The offices impacted by this filing deadline were:
- U.S. Senate
- Six single-office state executive positions, including governor
- Five out of 11 seats on the state Board of Education
- Seventeen out of 33 seats in the state Senate
- All 99 seats in the state House
Ohio’s primaries will take place May 3 for all of the above offices and U.S. House. Ohio is the sixth state to have a filing deadline elapse this election cycle. Three other states have filing deadlines this month. Those states are:
- Indiana (Feb. 4)
- Nebraska (Feb. 15)
- Maryland (Feb. 22)
