‘Chuy’ will run alone in 2024
By Gregg Wendorf
Advance News Journal
How fast things can change on the state ballot if you’re not looking.
First, it looked like long-tenured Texas State Sen. Juan “Chuy” Hinojosa, D-McAllen, would have a GOP opponent next November in the General Election, namely, former State Representative Raul Torres, both fighting for District 20. But now the seasoned politico will run unopposed.
This story is confusing, to say the least, and with this being the week between Christmas and New Year’s, getting to the bottom of it is made more difficult. Sources are difficult to reach, even with a cellphone — that sort of thing. Meaning, the following info is somewhat confusing, so bear with us.
STATUS: REJECTED
Bottom line, though, on the Texas Secretary of State’s website this Tuesday, under Raul Torres’ name with regard to his bid for Senate District 20, it reads: REJECTED.
According to several sources, it was the state Republican Party itself that rejected Torres from the March 2024 GOP primary in which he was set to run unopposed.
Why?
Because apparently, he changed his voter’s registration address four days before the Dec. 11 filing deadline, from District 27 to District 20, even though the state’s Election Code mandates that a candidate reside in the district in which he or she is running a full 12 months before the Primary Election. Still, news doesn’t seem to have gone public about Torres’ residential snafu. Not just yet.
In fact, at The Center Square (thecentersquare.com), an online site dedicated to “covering statehouse and statewide news,” in a story published Dec. 19, 2023, it mentions that the Texas Secretary of State published a list of candidates running for office, which includes this news about District 20: “In District 20 in Brooks County, which has been hit hard by illegal border crossings and leans over 50% Democrat, Republican Raul Torres is challenging incumbent Democrat Juan ‘Chuy’ Hinojosa.”
The Senate District, 20, runs from parts of Hidalgo County north up Hwy. 281, through sections of Brooks County, Jim Wells, and then turns east toward Corpus/Nueces County.
Sen. Hinojosa, the 77-year-old attorney and former U.S. Marine who served as squad leader during two combat tours in Viet Nam between 1966 and '68, has served District 20 for two decades and will begin his seventh term in January 2025.
In a press release sent out the first day of filing, Nov. 11, Hinojosa wrote: “As a border state, we must address the issues surrounding border security effectively. As a lifelong border resident, I understand the importance of finding comprehensive solutions that prioritize the safety and well-being of all Texans.”
To show how politically divided the Lone Star State is these days, with little to no compromise between the Dems and the GOP, TexasTribune.org rated state senators earlier this month, from most liberal to most conservative. Among the Democrat senators, Hinojosa was rated the most conservative.
In the state Senate currently, among the 31 total members seated, 19 are Republicans and 12 are Democrats.
According to the same Tx-Trib story dated Dec. 18, 2023: “At the least liberal end of the Democratic ideological continuum is a single senator, Juan “Chuy” Hinojosa of McAllen. His Lib-Con Score is significantly less liberal than those of every one of his 11 fellow Democrats.”
According to the same story, “Hinojosa’s Lib-Con Score is still however significantly more liberal than that of the least conservative Republican.”
How wide the current political divide compared to the 1990s and in legislative sessions prior when both sides of the senate aisle broke bread and came up with solutions, real solutions built on common sense, one compromise after another, which benefited most constituents, taxpayers, as opposed to ideologues from the far right and the far left.
Goodbye, Torres?
Initially, Republican Raul Torres had plans to run for District 27, currently held by Democrat Morgan LaMantia, 37, in-house counsel for the L & F beer dynasty that bears, in part, her family name.
At some point, though, close to the Dec. 11, 2023, filing deadline, Raul Torres, 68, a CPA by profession, had to remember that in the last Texas GOP primary for District 27, March of 2022, fellow Republican Adam Hinojosa beat him by more than 4,000 votes, 51 percent vs. 34.6 percent.
In fact, on his Facebook page today, Torres is still giving his pitch as to why he should be the winner in the March 5, 2024, GOP Primary for District 27, as opposed to Adam Hinojosa.
“I believe in God, family, and the goodness of America.”
Four days before the Dec. 11 filing deadline, however, Raul Torres allegedly switched his voter’s registration, said hello to a new residence address and goodbye to District 27, and jumped to “Chuy” Hinojosa’s District 20, where no other Republican had filed to run for the March primary. He beat the 6 p.m. deadline, but in the end, apparently all that work paid no dividends.
The state’s GOP Party, presumably, got wind of Torres’s sleight of hand and booted him from the state ballot by notifying the Secretary of State that he was no longer a viable contender for District 20.
This, by the way, had he stayed on the ballot, was the same seat Raul Torres ran for in the 2012 General Election against Sen. Hinojosa, losing by more than 40,000 votes, 61.5 percent vs. 38.5.
According to the Texas Election Code, to run for any state or federal office, one must have been a resident in the district for which they’re seeking election for at least a year before Election Day.
The morale to this story — any politician can pick up stakes and move to the other side of town, the county, or the state. You just can’t do it four days before the filing deadline and call it Kosher.