This story has been updated to reflect late filings on Monday and a delay on the Texas Secretary of State's website.
Collin County is a conservative stronghold. But its Republican statehouse representatives — all incumbents — are facing challengers in their own party’s primary after voting to impeach Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton earlier this year.
The filing deadline to run in the 2024 election was Monday. Jeff Leach, Candy Noble, Matt Shaheen, Justin Holland and Frederick Frazier each have at least one primary opponent, and Paxton has endorsed four of those challengers.
Every Collin County GOP representative voted to impeach Paxton in late May. Paxton was later acquitted by the state senate.
The five Republican representatives released a joint statement at the time, saying they felt there was enough evidence to impeach but calling it a tough decision.
“This was an incredibly difficult vote as, for most of us, Ken has been a longtime friend,” the statement said.
Most of the Democrats running for the statehouse in Collin County filed for candidacy on Monday according to the Texas Secretary of State's Office qualified candidate website.The portal experienced delays, so several candidates were not on the site until after Monday, the last day to file for candidacy.
Representative Mihaela Plesa, the first Democrat elected in Collin County in 30 years, filed to run for re-election in late November. Other Democratic candidates running for seats in the Texas House of Representatives filed to run on Monday. They including Tony Adamsin District 61, David Carstens in District 66, Jefferson Nunn and Makala Washington in District 67, Darrel Evans in District 89. Most of the Republican statehouse candidates in Collin County filed to run in November.
Maria Garcia, the president of the Hispanic Republican Club of North Texas, said in a previous interview with KERA that the voters will remember how Leach and the other Collin County GOP members voted during the impeachment process when they’re up for reelection.
“It’s going to affect them politically for sure,” Garcia said.
Internal Divide
Collin County is known for being Paxton’s conservative power base. County voters first elected Paxton in 2002, and he represented Texas House District 70 for a decade. The Dallas Morning News’ editorial board called him an "easygoing consensus builder" when he ran for reelection in 2004.
Many in the Collin County Republican Party still support Paxton, and he has history with several key players.
At a Plano rally for Paxton before his trial in the senate, County Judge Chris Hill and local Congressman Keith Self — both Republicans — attended a Labor Day picnic hosted by the county’s Republican Party featuring Paxton and his wife, Sen. Angela Paxton.
During closing arguments at the trial, Texas Rep. Jeff Leach, R-Plano, said he knew his decision to impeach Paxton would be controversial.
“There comes a time for each of us not to ask yourself what is safe, or popular or politic, but what is right,” Leach said.
Paxton has endorsed Daren Meis, a former Allen city council member and Leach’s opponent in the Texas House District 67 Republican primary. He also endorsed Abraham George, who stepped down as the Collin County GOP party chair to run against Texas Rep. Candy Noble.
George has been one of Paxton's vocal supporters. In a social media post, he called the trial a waste of time and resources that distracted GOP members from priorities like the border and economy. He also said the votes amounted to "an unequivocal call to clean the Texas House" in the upcoming election.
Other endorsements include Wayne Richard, who’s running against Shaheen, and Chuck Branch, who’s running against Frazier.
Conservative Stronghold
Three Democrats won the majority of the votes in Collin County in 2022. That included Texas Rep. Mihaela Plesa from District 70.
Plesa’s race was close — she won by less than 1,000 votes — but Democrats claim the party is gaining momentum in the region as the population diversifies.
Plesa told Collin County residents at a rally after the Allen shooting Democrats need to build on that diversity.
“We can continue putting more people at the table,” she said.
Democrats have won seats in Collin County at the local level on city councils and school boards. Katherine Chan Goodwin was elected to Plano ISD’s board of trustees in May.
School board and city council races are supposed to be nonpartisan — but Chan Goodwin said in a previous interview with KERA that isn’t the case anymore.
“It's the last place that we should be arguing about politics,” she said. “We should be focusing on those kids and what we can do for them.”
But most of the county’s elected officials — from city council members to national representatives — still lean conservative, and the far right has a strong presence in the county. The all-Republican commissioners court has spent the past two years listening to speakers — including precinct chairs from the party that got them elected— urge them to get rid of the county’s voting machines because of false 2020 election fraud claims.
Trump won Collin County that year — as did every other Republican.
Several Republican precinct chairs and members of Collin County Citizens Defending Freedom spoke for two hours about false election integrity concerns during a commissioners court meeting earlier this year.
“We don’t trust computer voting,” Roger Wheelock said.
“As a precinct chair, I hear it all the time that people do not have faith in their vote being counted accurately,” Amy Haynes said.
Hill, the county judge, put election integrity on the agenda after years of public comments urging him to do so. He said he appreciated the attendees' passion for the topic and would take some of their recommendations into consideration.
“This is not the end of the conversation,” he said. “This is the next step.”
Got a tip? Email Caroline Love at clove@kera.org.
Caroline Love is a Report For AmericaCorps member for KERA News.
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