The five founding members of the House LGBT Caucus (from left): Celia Israel, Mary Gonzalez, Erin Zweiner, Jessica Gonzales and Julie Johnson.
LGBT candidates filing for office in Texas include familiar names
JAMES RUSSELL | Contributing Writer
james.journo@gmail.com
More than a dozen out lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender candidates from both the Democratic and Republican parties have filed to be on the ballot in Texas for the March primaries for state and federal offices.
While the neither the state parties nor the Texas Secretary of State formally track the sexual orientation or gender identity of candidates, it appears that at least 13 Democrats and one Republican who openly identify as LGBT have filed to run for office
In the Texas House, the five incumbent state representatives who formed the new LGBTQ Caucus are all running for re-election. Caucus Chair Mary Gonzalez, D-Clint, Rep. Celia Israel, D-Austin, and freshmen Reps. Jessica Gonzalez, D-Dallas and Julie Johnson. D-Carrollton, will face no challengers in the primary. Of the five, only freshman Rep. Erin Zwiener, D-Driftwood, who became the first openly bisexual member of the Texas Legislature when she was elected in 2018, faces a primary challenger — bookkeeper Liliana Posada.
While Republicans are on the defense this cycle, the 12 Democrats who flipped Republican seats in 2018 are top Republican targets. That includes Johnson and Zwiener.
Five additional candidates are running in seats targeted by Democrats. They include Dallas’s Shawn Terry, who is gay, Houston’s Jennifer Rene Pool, who is transgender, Katy’s Elizabeth Markowitz, who is lesbian, Eric Holguin of Corpus Christi, who is gay, and Ann Johnson of Houston, who is bisexual.
Terry is one of three Democrats seeking the chance to take on General Investigating Committee Chairman Morgan Meyer, R-Highland Park, who narrowly won re-election, by a mere 200 votes, in 2018. Terry faces 2018 candidate Joanna Cattanach and Tom Ervin in the Democratic Primary, while Meyer has no primary opponent.
Pool is running for the second time for the open House District 138 seat in the Houston area, currently held by retiring Republican Rep. Dwayne Bohac. She was defeated in the 2018 primary by attorney Adam Milasincic, who would eventually lose to Bohac by a slim 40 votes. If elected, Pool would be the first elected transgender state representative in Texas.
Markowitz is running simultaneously in special and primary elections to succeed former Appropriations Committee Chairman Dr. John Zerwas of Richmond, who resigned in September to take a job as executive vice chancellor for health affairs with the University of Texas System. His resignation triggered a November special election, where Markowitz was the top vote getter in the swing district. She faces Republican Gary Gates in next month’s run-offs, but has no primary opponent.
Holguin is running against Rep. Todd Hunter of Corpus Christi, who received a B- on Equality Texas’s most recent legislative scorecard. Holguin, a gay Latino, has the backing of the Victory Fund, the national LGBT organization headed by former Houston Mayor Annise Parker and dedicated to electing LGBT people to public office. He would become the first gay man of color elected to the Texas House if he were to win.
Ann Johnson, who ran in 2012 and is also backed by the Victory Fund, is running again against Rep. Sarah Davis of West University Place. But Davis is not a typical Republican. She is the only member of her caucus to receive an A+ from Equality Texas, which also gave her its Profile in Courage award at this year’s 30th anniversary gala.
Two additional candidates are challenging Republican incumbents.
Transgender candidate Addison Perry-Franks of Snyder in West Texas, faces James Barrack in the Democratic primary. The primary winner will face the tarnished House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dustin Burrows of Lubbock.
Burrows resigned last summer as chairman of the Texas Republican House Caucus after a secretly recorded meeting with right-wing activist Michael Quinn Sullivan revealed he, along with Speaker of the House Dennis Bonnen, made numerous damning remarks about incumbents, including offering a target list of 10 Republican incumbents in exchange for avoiding expensive primaries against vulnerable incumbent Republicans. After a rebellion in the caucus and chorus of members calling for his resignation, Bonnen announced his retirement.
Lesbian candidate Stephanie Phillips of Canyon Lake is running again for the Central Texas seat currently held by state Rep. Kyle Biedermann. She ran against Biedermann in 2018, becoming the first Democrat to challenge an incumbent Republican in the district in a decade.
The two remaining candidates are making bids for Congress, and one could win. War veteran Gina Ortiz Jones, who is lesbian, nearly knocked off incumbent Congressman Will Hurd of Helotes in 2018. The difference was fewer than 800 votes. Hurd, the only black Republican in the U.S. House, announced his retirement this year.
The district is seen as a prime pick up for Democrats, and Jones is considered the frontrunner.
The sole out gay Republican running this cycle is also making a bid for office again. Mauro, who owns the gay nightclub Pegasus in San Antonio, would become the first gay Hispanic Jewish Republican. He ran in the primary in 2018 for an open seat held by former Congressman Lamar Smith. This time, he’s running in the primary to take on Congressman Joaquin Castro, who represents a solidly Democratic district.
Early voting for the Tuesday, March 3 primaries begins Tuesday, Feb. 18.