House District 2 is a solidly red seat covering three counties east of Dallas: Van Zandt, Hopkins, and Hunt. Earlier this year the Texas House expelled Royse City Republican Bryan Slaton after an investigation found he got a young staffer drunk and had sex with her.
Now six candidates are running to fill the seat. The race has become a proxy war for statewide issues and forces and will likely go to a runoff if no one gets a majority of the vote. The election is this Tuesday.
Jill Dutton, Brent Money, Heath Hyde, Doug Roszhart, and Krista Schild are running as Republicans. Kristen Washington is running as a Democrat.
Dutton and Money have received most of the backing of powerful political groups, including the operation behind Attorney General Ken Paxton and many Texas House incumbents.
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Former Greenville city councilman Brent Money tells NBC 5 he wants to be a conservative fighter in the Texas House and believes the current chamber is not delivering. He specifically points to how the legislature has not required companies to implement the E-Verify program to make sure they’re not hiring someone who illegally crossed the border into Texas.
“When I look at the Texas House, I see them consistently, over years and years not doing the things that they campaigned on. Our border is still not secure. Our elections are still not trustworthy,” said Money.
Money has the support of Senator Ted Cruz and Attorney General Ken Paxton. Paxton endorsed Money as part of his “revenge tour” trying to change the makeup of the Texas House led by Beaumont Republican Dade Phelan after the lower chamber impeached him on bribery and abuse of power accusations. Paxton was then acquitted in the Texas Senate.
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The conservative Defend Texas Liberty PAC recently donated $35,000 to him. That group’s president recently was demoted for having a lengthy meeting with well-known white supremacist Nick Fuentes.
The meeting sparked a statewide controversy when many called for politicians to return the money. Money told NBC 5 he was ok with accepting the group’s support because he was not involved in the meeting and has never met, and says he would never meet, Nick Fuentes.
“I’m running a campaign to let voters know about me,” said Money, “This is kind of a proxy war and what happens to them, if they like what they see then they’ll support me. If they don’t than they won’t. I’m focused on the voters of House District 2.”
Former school board trustee Jill Dutton helped found the Republican Women of Van Zandt County and wants to work to unify Republicans in Austin.
“We definitely need to grow and unify the Republican party because if we’re divided than the Democrats win. It’s a numbers game at this point, especially with all the people moving to Texas,” said Dutton.
She has the support of Congressman Lance Gooden and eight Texas House members from the area. She’s also received $235,000 from Austin political groups that usually supports the leadership in the Texas House and Republican incumbents: Texans for Lawsuit Reform and the Associated Republicans of Texas.
Dutton tells NBC 5 she welcomes their support and called them “conservative groups working to grow the party.”
“I also interviewed them and asked them what they expected in return. All they wanted is to be conservative, grow the Republican party and vote my district,” said Dutton.
A wild card in the race may be Heath Hyde. He’s a dairy and cattle farmer in Hopkins County who used to be a Dallas County assistant District Attorney.
The Farm Bureau endorsed Hyde. Twenty years ago he ran for District Attorney in Hopkins County when he tells NBC 5 most farmers in the area were Democrats.
Hyde is running as an anti-voucher Republican candidate, different from both Dutton and Money who support Governor Abbott’s priority of letting families use public school money on private and home schools.
“It’s important to preserve these communities and the school is the heart of those communities. I just don’t want those communities to die on my watch. I think we need to work on making our public schools better,” Hyde told NBC 5.
The top two candidates in the race go on to a runoff election. Since this is a special election, candidates can then run again for the full term in December. The Republican primary for the two year term is in March. Since the district is one of the most conservative in the state, it’s believed the winner of the March primary will easily defeat a Democrat in November.
