A group of far-left candidates boosted by a Texas political machine bankrolled by liberal New York billionaire George Soros achieved victory in the Democratic primary runoff elections last week.
The Texas Organizing Project PAC reported receiving $725,000 in funding from Soros- $600,000 from Soros directly and another $125,000 from the Soros-funded Texas Justice and Public Safety PAC- on a runoff campaign finance report filed with the Texas Ethics Commission. These donations from Soros accounted for more than 79% of the funds the Texas Organizing Project PAC raised during the reporting period covered by the runoff report.
Other major donors to the Texas Organizing Project PAC during the most recent reporting included Harris County Commissioner Rodney Ellis, who donated $15,000. Ellis has long been a close ally of the Texas Organizing Project and has been one of the most vocal advocates for its public policy agenda.
During the Democratic primary runoff, the Texas Organizing Project supported four candidates- Texas State House Candidate Lauren Simmons, Texas State Senate Candidate Molly Cook, Harris County Tax-Assessor candidate Annette Ramirez, and Bexar County Commissioner Rebecca Clay-Flores.
Simmons defeated incumbent Democratic State Representative Shawn Thierry by a margin of nearly thirty points for Texas House District 146 in the Houston area. Thierry came under fire from liberal activist groups after voting with Republicans on legislation to ban child gender modification, ban pornographic books in schools, and prohibit biological men from participating in women’s college sports. Thierry’s unsuccessful re-election campaign was supported by a coalition of African-American pastors and some of the more moderate members of the Texas House Democratic caucus.
In addition to receiving support from the Texas Organizing Project, Simmons was supported by former Texas gubernatorial candidates Beto O’Rourke and Wendy Davis, Planned Parenthood, an assortment of labor unions, and several of the most liberal members of the Texas House.
Political organizer and nurse Molly Cook narrowly defeated State Representative Jarvis Johnson in the Democratic runoff for Texas State Senate District 15 in Harris County. Cook earned 50.2% of the vote, with Johnson receiving 49.8%. Longtime State Senator John Whitmire recently vacated this seat upon his election as Mayor of Houston.
Cook, who waged an unsuccessful primary challenge to Whitmire in 2022 that was backed by the Houston chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America, won a special election to fill the remainder of Whitmire’s unexpired term earlier this year.
Attorney Annette Ramirez defeated opponent Desiree Broadnax by a 12-point margin to secure the Democratic nomination for Harris County Tax-Assessor Collector. Incumbent Ann Harris Bennett is not seeking re-election.
The Office of Harris County Tax-Assessor Collector is of great importance to the Texas Organizing Project and other liberal activist groups since it performs voter registration functions in Harris County. On her campaign website, Ramirez discusses how she plans to use the Harris County Tax Office to focus voter registration efforts on groups that predominantly vote for Democratic candidates. Among the groups that Ramirez intends to target her voter registration efforts towards are “formerly incarcerated people who have earned the right to vote again.”
Ramirez will face Republican Steve Radack, a former Harris County Commissioner, in the November general election.
Bexar County Commissioner Rebecca Clay-Flores won 63% of the vote against opponent Amanda Gonzalez. According to the San Antonio Report, Clay-Flores initially opposed a proposal to hire 50 new Sheriff’s deputies and was accused by Gonzalez during the campaign of not supporting law enforcement. Gonzalez was endorsed by the Deputy Sheriff’s Association of Bexar County.
The Texas Voice has previously reported on how the Texas Organizing Project and other liberal organizations are hiring staff and building political infrastructure in Texas ahead of the November general election. The most recent campaign finance report filed by the Republican Party of Texas with the Federal Election Commission showed that the Party had just five employees on its payroll and no field offices, compared to over 50 employees at the same time during the last Presidential election cycle.
