Name: Dallas GOP’s candidates for the Texas House are as diverse as the county. Will that matter in 2020?
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Dallas GOP’s candidates for the Texas House are as diverse as the county. Will that matter in 2020?

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7:30 AM on Jul 30, 2020 CDTAUSTIN — As Republicans look to win back state House seats in Dallas this November, the party’s slate of candidates is as diverse as the county’s demographics.Leading that charge is a lineup that includes four women, several millennials, two immigrants, an African American and a biracial candidate.The new look comes at a crucial time. Two years ago, the Dallas County GOP lost five seats in the Texas House, which made up nearly .Now, they’re trying to and prevent for the first time since 2001.But with so much on the line, will the GOP’s diversity of candidates be enough to overcome Democratic momentum and suburban dissatisfaction with President Donald Trump?“Most people these days go into the voting booth and will vote a straight ticket,” said Cal Jillson, a political scientist at Southern Methodist University. “It’s still the simplest way to go into the voting booth with, ‘Am I more comfortable with Democrats or Republicans?’ Because you don’t know all these people.”With some polls showing Trump and Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden , Jillson said it’s likely voters in major urban areas are leaning toward the Democrat. That could cut into the advantages Dallas County’s diverse Republicans might have in attracting broader support.“For a first-time candidate and challenger to surface their names so that [a voter is] going to cross the ballot for that person is a heavy lift,” he said, especially because automatic straight-ticket voting will not be available anymore. “That is the broad dynamic of this race — that Trump is the albatross around the neck of some of these Republican candidates.”But the candidates don’t see it that way. They want to run on their qualifications and how those will translate to their work at the Capitol.“At the end of the day, I’m my own candidate,” said Will Douglas, a biracial pharmacist who is challenging Democratic state Rep. Rhetta Bowers in House District 113. “Whenever I’m in the statehouse I’m going to be my own rep. People in my district don’t want someone who’s just going to vote party line, it’s someone who’s going to vote their values.”The appeal of this year’s batch of Dallas County House candidates is strong. and Luisa del Rosal, a Mexican immigrant who runs the Tower Center at Southern Methodist University, raised $120,000 after being for the last six months of 2019.Both are first-time candidates.“This cycle we are seeing a concerted effort by the GOP to provide candidates that look more like Texas,” said Jason Villalba, president of the Texas Hispanic Policy Foundation. “The GOP recognizes that without appealing beyond the current voter electorate that they’ve used to win elections, they’ll have difficulty in upcoming political cycles.”Dallas County Republican Party Chairman Rodney Anderson said the candidates came about “organically,” but the slate is a good reminder to Democrats that they aren’t the only party with a diverse bench.“They’re not running as Republicans because of their skin color, they’re running as Republicans because they have the same belief system,” he said. “Obviously, there’s a diversity of thought and we have our own squabbles from hard right to moderate. Each of these folks falls on diverse parts of that spectrum.”Douglas and del Rosal are both small government, pro-business Republicans, while Gerson Hernandez and Eugene Allen are more focused on socially conservative principles. Anderson also touts the leading role played by women, including Angie Chen Button, a six-term incumbent; former state Rep. Linda Koop; and Karyn Brownlee, a former school principal and school board member.The candidates stress they want to be evaluated by voters holistically.“I’m not just a minority candidate,” Douglas said. “I have a litany of qualifications that make me a great candidate for the state House. It just so happens that I am half Black and that stands out as being a little different in the modern GOP.”Born in rural Oklahoma to a Black father and a white mother, Douglas was raised in a conservative family. His father worked at a manufacturing company for more than 40 years and his mother stayed at home to care for the family much of his life.He was influenced by an uncle, the most successful person he knew, to become a pharmacist.At 28, he achieved his life goal of owning his own pharmacy. But when he tried to expand to New York with business partners, he found the regulation in the Democratic state too cumbersome. The deal fell through.That experience brought Douglas, who twice voted for Barack Obama, back to Republican principles like industry deregulation. It also inspired him to run for office.“I moved here with some goals and fire in my belly and this state has given me so much,” said Douglas, now 33. “It would be incredibly selfish not to give back and to not try for Texas to stay a free market for others to realize their dreams as well.”Del Rosal, who is running against Democratic state Rep. John Turner in House District 114, jokes that as a Mexican immigrant, a woman and a millennial, she checks every diversity box. But those experiences have made her a Republican.“I look at my parents in Mexico [and] I see the alternative to a free and fair society. You don’t have to tell me what top down government does, I see it,” she said. “That message is really translating to folks. Even if they don’t agree with me, they like the life experiences that I bring.”Button, one of two remaining Dallas GOP incumbents, immigrated to Texas from Taiwan, where her parents had fled to escape the communist regime in China. Her family of seven lived in a one-room home with no kitchen and no bathroom.She came to Texas on a student visa in the late ’70s and got her citizenship after marrying her husband, Darcy Button, a U.S. citizen she had met at the University of Texas at Dallas. She went on to a successful career at Texas Instrument and as an accountant.“I believe in self-made, I believe in free markets. If you work hard in this country and in this community, especially in Texas, the sky’s the limit,” she said.But del Rosal, Button and Hernandez, who is the son of El Salvadoran immigrants, will face questions about and , such as a 2017 state law that allows police to ask about citizenship during routine stops.The challenge is not lost on the party’s leaders. Anderson said candidates will decide how to address these criticisms in a way that best fits their constituency.“They will each have to craft the messaging that fits their personality,” he said.Villalba, a former Republican lawmaker who was , said candidates will have to walk a very tight rope.“A Republican today who is not supportive of the president will be un-elected very quickly,” he said. “Trump is the Republican party.”Del Rosal, a legalized U.S. citizen, said she supports comprehensive immigration reform but that is a federal issue. She said she’s more focused on what she can do as a state legislator — fighting to lower property taxes and improving public education and health care — than on policing Trump’s comments.Manny Garcia, executive director of the Texas Democratic Party, said such answers attempt to duck difficult questions.“They can have all the rhetoric they want and have a perfect profile, but at the end of the day their party, their president and their governor has supported children in cages in Texas,” Garcia said. “At the end of day, they have approved legislation that criminalizes people of color.”The issues don’t stop with immigration, Garcia said. Republicans were also responsible for and the that federal courts said intentionally discriminated against Black people and Hispanics.“They have approved all the legislation that makes it harder for people to vote and have their voice heard,” Garcia said. “You can’t say that just because I have this last name or I’m an immigrant, that suddenly you get a pass. Voters are smarter than that.”Del Rosal said she’s focused on conversations about values rather than party affiliation.“It’s about values and hoping our diversity opens conversations about values and what brings us together instead of what drives us apart,” she said.Those values also reflect the changing nature of the Dallas County GOP as a younger generation joins its political ranks. As a business owner, Douglas said he would not discriminate against anyone regardless of skin color, religion or sexual orientation.Asked if that meant support for gay marriage, Douglas said: “That’s a done deal. I don’t think [that’s something] a statehouse rep is going to have to deal with.”Garcia pushed back against that, too. He said allowing LGBTQ people to exercise the same rights as others was the bare minimum a candidate should support. Instead of shying away from the conversation, he said, Democrats were offering full-throated support.“Let’s be clear, this is the same Texas Legislature where the governor called a special session for ,” he said. “You can expect every kind of legislation affecting every kind of issue falling on the Texas Legislature. That’s why it’s important that people have the right values and they’re in it for the right reasons.”Receive the latest political news delivered every Tuesday and Thursday from reporters in Austin, Dallas and Washington.By signing up you agree to our

7:30 AM on Jul 30, 2020 CDTAUSTIN — As Republicans look to win back state House seats in Dallas this November, the party’s slate of candidates is as diverse as the county’s demographics.Leading that charge is a lineup that includes four women, several millennials, two immigrants, an African American and a biracial candidate.The new look comes at a crucial time. Two years ago, the Dallas County GOP lost five seats in the Texas House, which made up nearly .Now, they’re trying to and prevent for the first time since 2001.But with so much on the line, will the GOP’s diversity of candidates be...

Dallas GOP’s candidates for the Texas House are as diverse as the county. Will that matter in 2020?

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