Field set to vie for Cornyn’s Senate seat as filing deadline passes

The field of Democrats vying for U.S. Sen. John Cornyn’s seat was set Monday as the filing deadline to appear on the March primary ballot passed with no surprising additions to the already crowded race.

The 12-candidate lineup does not include familiar faces that some supporters had hoped might make last-minute appearances: Beto O’Rourke, Julián Castro and Joaquin Castro.

As expected, Julián Castro filed for the Democratic presidential primary, and his twin brother, Joaquin Castro, filed for reelection to the San Antonio-area congressional seat he has held since 2013.

O’Rourke, meanwhile, confirmed in a text message to the American-Statesman that he would not run for the seat and would instead focus on supporting Democratic candidates running in Texas.

“I am not running for Senate,” he said Monday. “I am focused on supporting the Democratic nominee for president, helping Democrats win control of the Texas House, helping to elect more Democrats to Congress from Texas.”

To some in Texas, a second run for the Senate in 2020 seemed like the logical next step for the former El Paso congressman, who gained national prominence for his close, but losing, race against U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, last year.

But O’Rourke has been adamant that he would not run for Cornyn’s seat, shutting down questions about the possibility during his presidential campaign and in the weeks after he exited the race.

Candidates in the race

None of the 12 Democratic candidates for Senate has thus far garnered statewide name recognition or come close to matching O’Rourke’s record-breaking fundraising numbers from his 2018 Senate campaign.

Cornyn raised $3.2 million from July to September, the most recent reporting period — roughly $400,000 more than all of the Democratic candidates combined over the same period.

The field of Democrats includes Chris Bell, a former Houston congressman; MJ Hegar, an Air Force veteran who lost a close bid to unseat U.S. Rep. John Carter, R-Round Rock, in 2018; state Sen. Royce West, D-Dallas; Amanda Edwards, a Houston City Council member; Sema Hernandez, a Houston-area activist who ran second to O’Rourke in the 2018 Democratic primary; and Cristina Tzintzún Ramirez, an Austin civil rights activist who founded Jolt, an organization that works to increase Latino participation in politics.

Several other Democrats are also in the running: Michael Cooper, Jack Daniel Foster Jr., Annie “Mama” Garcia, Victor Hugo Harris, D.R. Hunter and Adrian Ocegueda.

Polling in the race has revealed that voters are largely unfamiliar with the candidates.

In an October poll from the University of Texas and the Texas Tribune, 57% of registered voters who identify as Democrats said they did not know who they would support if the primary vote happened immediately.

Hegar received 12% of support in the poll, followed by Hernandez at 6% and West at 5%.

A different poll, conducted by the Democratic Policy Institute, surveyed 1,601 registered voters in Texas and asked them to choose between six possible Senate candidates — including O’Rourke.

It found that O’Rourke was the strongest candidate in a head-to-head election with Cornyn and trailed Cornyn by 4 points. The other five candidates — West, Hegar, Bell and Hernandez — trailed him by 12 to 19 points.

Three people filed in the Republican primary to challenge Cornyn: Virgil Bierschwale, Dwayne Stovall and Mark Yancey.

O’Rourke staffers in race

O’Rourke declined to comment on the field and did not identify the Senate race when he listed 2020 contests in Texas in which he might play a role.

But Tzintzún Ramirez on Monday announced a series of endorsements from 21 former O’Rourke staffers, including Jody Casey, who served as his campaign manager during the Senate race.

His focus so far has been on the Texas House. Democrats need to flip nine GOP-held seats and successfully defend all of the seats Democrats currently occupy.

In early December, O’Rourke emailed supporters asking for contributions to Flip the Texas House, an initiative targeting certain GOP House seats Democrats have identified as vulnerable.

He also urged his supporters to aid Democrat Eliz Markowitz in a special runoff election for the Richmond-area House seat vacated by Republican Rep. John Zerwas.

O’Rourke also said he will continue working on issues that were central to his platform as a presidential candidate: “climate change, gun violence and the humane treatment of asylum seekers and refugees.”