In one of Texas’ highest-profile state primary races, Texas House member Rep. Victoria Neave Criado fell short Tuesday in her bid to unseat incumbent Sen. Nathan Johnson. With no Republicans vying for the seat, the primary was make-or-break.
Neave Criado is taking on Johnson in the recently redrawn Senate District 16, which includes Irving, Mesquite and Richardson.
With only two Democratic candidates and no Republicans in the primary, the winner of Senate District 16’s primary will win the Senate seat outright.
Neave Criado has said Johnson didn’t fight hard enough in the Republican-dominated state Senate and criticized him for supporting Senate Bill 4, strengthening the punishment for human smuggling. Gov. Greg Abbott had put the idea on the third special session call as a border security item, and it split the Democratic caucus in the upper chamber 10 to two, as Lone Star Politics reported.
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“While I was leading the charge in the House fighting back against Gov. Abbott’s racial profiling bill, Nathan Johnson voted for one of Gov. Abbott’s bills,” Neave Criado told Lone Star Politics earlier this year.
Johnson fired back in a Lone Star Politics interview: “If it were a racial profiling bill, I want to know why my opponent hasn’t said a word about it for the eight years she’s been in office.”
He said that his move was tactical and noted he voted with the Senate Hispanic Caucus.
2024 TEXAS PRIMARY
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