Stockman Will Primary Cornyn

National Review Online ^ | December 9, 2013 8:18 PM | Betsy Woodruff

[SoConPubbie]

At the very last minute, Representative Steve Stockman filed today to run challenge Republican senator John Cornyn of Texas in the 2014 elections.

Stockman, a darling of the grassroots with a penchant for controversial Twitter statements and headline-grabbing comments, is a very, very long shot. But he’s by far the most prominent threat to the senator, who has a number of other less well-known challengers. World Net Daily reported at about 7:30 p.m. today that the congressman would challenge Cornyn. The site says Stockman said he decided to run because he believes Cornyn “undermined Sen. Ted Cruz’s fight to stop Obamacare.” More from that article:

WND asked: What makes you think you can beat this entrenched incumbent?

“I don’t know that I can beat him, but I am sure going to try,” he said, adding that he thinks he has a shot because, “In Texas, conservative policies win over stabbing fellow Republicans in the back.”

Stockman will try to ride the wave of voter discontent with Obamacare.

In October, he was already predicting a silver lining to the failed attempt to defund the health-care law, telling WND, “In every loss, there can be a victory.”

Because Stockman filed so late, there aren’t any especially prominent East Texas Republicans running to fill his congressional seat, in southeast Texas’s 36th congressional district. As of 3:56 p.m., only Phil Fitzgerald, a former judge, and John Amdur (the address listed is a Houston P.O. box) have also filed to run for his seat. The surprising move has irked many Texas Republican insiders: One Austin consultant tells National Review Online that he believes Stockman went out of his way to keep his intentions secret from James White, a state representative from the district who probably would have run to fill the seat if he had known about Stockman’s statewide ambitions. 

White may just wait for 2016: “No doubt about it, James White will run next year,” the consultant says.

“It’s a disappointment,” he adds, noting that a victorious White would be the only African-American Republican in the House (Tim Scott was appointed to the Senate in 2013 and Allen West lost his reelection in 2012). 

UPDATE: Not everyone is disappointed. Matt Hoskins, the executive director of the Senate Conservatives Fund, tells National Review Online that his group is mulling an endorsement. 

“We haven’t decided yet whether we will endorse Steve Stockman, but we’re excited about the potential here,” he e-mails. ”Texas deserves two conservative fighters in the Senate, not just one. John Cornyn has voted to increase the debt, raise taxes, bail out Wall Street banks, and fund Obamacare. He’s part of the problem in Washington and voters deserve an alternative.”

Meanwhile, Cornyn’s office released a statement this evening touting his endorsement from Texas Right to Life.

“Senator Cornyn looks forward to discussing his conservative record with Texans,” said campaign manager Brendan Steinhauser in the statement.  

[deport]

I see Cornball with 70 percent in the primary. Is there a Democrat in the fall?

---

There are four democrats in the primary......

Select Travis County for statewide races.

https://webservices.sos.state.tx.us/candidate-filing/cf-report.aspx

[deport]

There six listed for CD 36 in Harris County. Stockman is still on the list but will be removed.

https://webservices.sos.state.tx.us/candidate-filing/cf-report.aspx

Select Harris County.

Republicans

Kim I. Morrell

John Amdur

Doug Centilli

Dave Norman

Chuck Meyer

Phil Fitzgerald

Democrat

Michael K. Cole

[Theodore R.]

Thanks, I don’t think any southern state has write-ins for primaries; if they do, it rarely matters. Thurmond and Skeen won as write-ins in SC and NM in general elections.

[magna carta]

He is a warrior on immigration. Very politically incorrect...a bad bad boy

[VerySadAmerican]

Wife and I have said we’ll never vote for another republican. Today we both agree that voting for Stockman, against Cornyn, will be worth it.

[ObamahatesPACoal]

It is worth it even if the Senate Seat and Stockman’s seat goes into RINO hands. Cornyn is not going to be voting for the Dream Act or other Obama projects any time soon. The sellouts like Ted Poe will worry about a primary threat in 2016.

While Cornyn was working with McCain, McConnell and Rubio; Stockman was in Steve King’s original gang of 5 that became a gang of 70 with .

1 more house RINO in 2015 is not the issue. It is the Boehner amnesty plans before then. Having a huge war between the Tea Party and McConnell’s gang is great to interrupt amnesty.

Joe Miller can chime in and attack Murkowski and her backer Cornyn.

We need a list of open border quotes from Cornyn.

http://www.chron.com/default/article/Cornyn-Immigration-reform-starts-at-the-border-4624045.php
My hope is that the House of Representatives will rescue this bill by strengthening its security provisions.
Also says he wants a conference on amnesty.

Im trying to find his facebook post where Cornyn said “just because a group of people wrote this bill doesnt mean we cant fix it”. Maybe Cornyn deleted it.

[Pilsner]

White can file as a write-in and run in the 2014 general election if he wishes

Nope. Only an independent may run as a write in in Texas. A person who has chosen to affiliate with a political party for the two year election cycle, may not. White affiliated with the Republican Party for this cycle by filing for a place on the ballot, in Texas House District 19, as a Republican:

http://www.texasgop.org/elections/candidates/

White might been able to unaffiliate if he had had time to withdraw his application for a place on the ballot. But if he had had time to do that, he could have just filed for Texas 36 in Congress.

[deport]

I think both seats will remain in the GOP but I’m not familiar with the political
leanings of all the candidates. The GOP has 8 in the Senate primary and 5 in the CD 36.
Those numbers may force a runoff in each, we’ll see.

[ObamahatesPACoal]

“We don’t look to the government to bail us out every time we get into a bind…Somebody said that the Republican party needs to be the party of legal immigration, and I kind of like the way that was put.”

That was his friend Rubio who wants amnesty and massive legal immigration.

http://www.johncornyn.com/2013/12/06/party-legal-immi/

Coming from Cornyn that means amnesty for some illegals and massive increases in documented Democrats.

[Theodore R.]

Good point, because he is running for reelection to Austin, he can’t run this year for a chance in DC. Are any of the Dist. 36 Republicans acceptable?

[SeaHawkFan]

I will check her out.

[SeaHawkFan]

I live in Baytown.

[fieldmarshaldj]

This just reported today on Politics1:

TX CD-36: Due to Cong Steve Stockman (R) last min entry into US Sen race, per state law, the CD-36 filing period is extended until Dec 16.

So serious candidates have 5 days additional to file, presumable this will give State Rep. James White his entrée.

[deport]

presumable this will give State Rep. James White his entrée.

***************

If he does enter then that leaves HD19 without a candidate in either GOP or Dem primary.
Not sure what the State law is regarding that situation, Gov. appt or special election?

[Viennacon]

Hope he runs. I’ve heard a lot of good things about him. Props to lawmakers for doing the right thing and extending the deadline.

[fieldmarshaldj]

Presumably, they would reopen the filing for both parties.

[AuH2ORepublican]

“This just reported today on Politics1:

TX CD-36: Due to Cong Steve Stockman (R) last min entry into US Sen race, per state law, the CD-36 filing period is extended until Dec 16.”

Great news! Hopefully either state Representative James White (whose district lies entirely within the TX-36, and who already represents around 25% of the TX-36’s voters) or some other first-tier candidate with a proven conservative record will enter the race.

If White runs, I think he’ll win, and he’ll be giving the liberal media conniptions every time he gives a speech from the House floor or appears on TV. Hopefully he won’t be the only black conservative Republican in the House: at the very least Mayor Mia Love of UT-04 should win, and other possibilities are Katrina Pierson in TX-32 (if she succeeds in her longshot bid to defeat Pete Sessions in the primary, she’s a shoo-in in the general), Erika Harold in IL-13 (I’d set her odds of winning the primary at 25%, and of winning the general at 85%), and maybe a few of others.

[Theodore R.]

I have never heard of extending a filing deadline like this, dj; is it legal to do so? LA would not extend the Democratic filing period when Allen Ellender died while campaigning for a sixth term in 1972. But that deadline had passed some weeks before.

[Theodore R.]

No appointments in TX to the legislature; would have to be a special election, but when would the special election be?

[fieldmarshaldj]

Laws vary from state to state, obviously. I personally think it is ridiculous that the period to file is a year before the election. Primaries should be in the summer of the same year of the election and the closing period less than a month before. Shortening election seasons will get us away from this endless election cycle.