A special election in North Texas is set for next Tuesday, Sept. 29. It’s for State Senate District 30, which covers a wide swath of mostly rural North Texas. Early voting is underway and runs through Friday.
Find your state Senate district here.
KERA’s Justin Martin talked to politics reporter Bret Jaspers about the race.
Justin Martin: Who’s running in Senate District 30?
Bret Jaspers: Well, it’s a very conservative district. There are five Republicans and one Democrat running. The Democrat is Jacob Minter, he works at the electrical workers union. The Republicans are Denton Mayor Chris Watts, software engineer Andy Hopper, State Representative Drew Springer, and two business owners: Craig Carter and Shelley Luther.
Martin: Now, Shelley Luther attracted headlines for opening her hair salon when Governor Greg Abbott ordered them closed because of the coronavirus.
Jaspers: That’s right, a judge told Luther to close the salon in accordance with the order, she said no, and that landed her in jail. The Texas Supreme Court quickly mandated her release, and Abbott also quickly removed confinement as a punishment for violating his order. But Luther’s place in the culture war over the coronavirus response was set. She was on the Chad Prather Show recently and said one thing she wants to change is the state disaster law that allows Governor Abbott wide latitude to declare laws during an epidemic.
Martin: Who is Luther’s main competition?
Jaspers: That’s State Representative Drew Springer. His House district overlaps with part of Senate District 30, he’s also received several endorsements. Springer was on KFYO, a radio station in Lubbock. And he addressed the disaster law, too -- he says that the state Legislature needs to have input after a certain period of time.
Springer’s more forgiving of Governor Abbott’s actions during coronavirus. As it happens, Springer’s wife got sick with COVID-19 and he said he’s now campaigning virtually. But otherwise, he and Luther don’t disagree on policy all that much. They’re both very conservative on abortion, on the Second Amendment, and on taxes.
Martin: How about fundraising? There were reports out Monday. What did they say?
Jaspers: Shelley Luther got a $1 million dollar loan from Tim Dunn, he’s a billionaire behind the far-right group Empower Texans. Luther also got $100,000 from Farris and Jo Ann Wilks, who are part of that group. Drew Springer has raised and spent a lot too, well over $500,000 since July.
Martin: How should we interpret the results of this race? What’s the storyline here?
Jaspers: We may be tempted to put a narrative on this, but we shouldn’t look too deeply into the results of a special election for any kind of political implications. Jim Henson, a professor at the University of Texas at Austin, told me this is just too small a sample size.
While special elections may not tell you much about the electorate, but the person who wins will be one of only 31 State Senators. These are people who write and vote on legislation that affects all of us. So these elections do matter.
Martin: Early voting for the Texas Senate District 30 special election runs through Friday. Election Day is next Tuesday, September 29th.
