Chris Fails
Chris Fails (Republican Party) ran for election to the Texas House of Representatives to represent District 122. Fails lost in the Republican primary on March 6, 2018.
Fails ran in one of 48 contested Texas state legislative Republican primaries in 2018. To read more about the conflict between Republican factions in the primaries, including who the factions were, which races were competitive and who key influencers lined up behind, click here.
Biography
Chris Fails' career experience includes working as the co-owner of Alamo Shooting Sports.[1]
Elections
2018
General election
General election for Texas House of Representatives District 122
Incumbent Lyle Larson defeated Claire Barnett in the general election for Texas House of Representatives District 122 on November 6, 2018.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ |  | Lyle Larson (R) | 61.9 | 58,311 |
 | Claire Barnett (D)  | 38.1 | 35,851 | |
| Total votes: 94,162 | |||
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Democratic primary election
Democratic primary for Texas House of Representatives District 122
Claire Barnett advanced from the Democratic primary for Texas House of Representatives District 122 on March 6, 2018.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Claire Barnett | 100.0 | 8,547 |
| Total votes: 8,547 | |||
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Republican primary election
Republican primary for Texas House of Representatives District 122
Incumbent Lyle Larson defeated Chris Fails in the Republican primary for Texas House of Representatives District 122 on March 6, 2018.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Lyle Larson | 59.6 | 10,913 |
 | Chris Fails | 40.4 | 7,393 | |
| Total votes: 18,306 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
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Overview of 2018 Republican primaries
The 2018 Texas state legislative Republican primaries featured conflict between two factions. One group was opposed to House Speaker Joe Straus (R) and his preferred policies on issues like education financing and property taxes. The anti-Straus wing included members of the Texas Freedom Caucus and organizations such as Empower Texans and Texas Right to Life. The other group was supportive of Straus and his policy priorities. The pro-Straus wing included incumbent legislators allied with Straus and organizations such as the Associated Republicans of Texas and the Texas Association of Business. To learn more about these factions and the conflict between them, visit our page on factional conflict among Texas Republicans.
The primaries occurred on March 6, 2018, with runoffs on May 22, 2018. There were 48 contested state legislative Republican primaries, outnumbering contested primaries in 2016 (43) and 2014 (44). To see our full coverage of the state legislative Republican primaries, including who key influencers were backing and what the primaries meant for the 2019 House speaker's race, visit our primary coverage page.
The charts below outline the March 6 primary races for the state Senate and the state House. They show how the factions performed on election night.
| Texas Senate Republicans | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Before March 6 primaries | After March 6 primaries | |
| Pro-Straus | 2 | 1 | |
| Anti-Straus | 1 | 3 | |
| Unknown | 3 | 3 | |
| Open seats | 1 | - | |
| Runoffs | - | - | |
| Too close to call | - | - | |
| Total | 7 | 7 | |
| Texas House Republicans | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Before March 6 primaries | After March 6 primaries | |
| Pro-Straus | 20 | 20 | |
| Anti-Straus | 4 | 9 | |
| Unknown | 2 | 5 | |
| Open seats | 15 | - | |
| Runoffs | - | 7 | |
| Too close to call | - | - | |
| Total | 41 | 41 | |
Primary we watched
This primary was one of 48 we tracked for the March 6 elections.
Did the incumbent file to run for re-election?
| Yes. |
What made this a race to watch?
| Chris Fails, the mayor of Hollywood Park, Texas, challenged state Rep. Lyle Larson, an ally of Joe Straus, in his primary. As of January 31, 2018, only Fails had signed the form committing to vote for the Republican caucus' choice for speaker on the House floor. Fails said he might join the Texas Freedom Caucus if elected.[2] On February 15, the Texas Tribune reported that Abbott, who endorsed Fails, would campaign for him before the primary election.[3] On February 20, Abbott's campaign released an ad that opposed Larson called "Liberal Lyle."[4] In response to the ad, Larson said, "I voted for 100% of the governor’s legislative priorities and yet he’s calling me a liberal. What does that make the governor? It’s unbecoming of a governor to attack members of his own party in a primary. Let’s be clear: he’s attacking me because I passed legislation saying we should eliminate pay-to-play for gubernatorial appointments. Is that liberal or conservative? Voters will see through this. People in this district are fed up with my opponents and the Governors negative ads.""[5] Abbott spent $136,000 on advertising for Fail's campaign, according to The Texas Tribune.[6] Endorsements for Fails
Endorsements for Larson |
Campaign advertisements
Lyle Larson -oppose
| "Liberal Lyle," released February 20, 2018 |
Campaign finance
See also
- State legislative elections, 2018
- Texas House of Representatives elections, 2018
- State legislative special elections, 2018
- Texas House of Representatives
- Texas State Legislature
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ Chris Fails, "About Chris," accessed February 10, 2018
- ↑ Cite error: Invalid
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<ref>tag; no text was provided for refs namedBlastf15 - ↑ Texas Tribune, "The Blast," February 20, 2018
- ↑ Twitter, Patrick Svitek on February 21," February 21, 2018
- ↑ Texas Tribune, "The Blast," February 23, 2018
- ↑ Cite error: Invalid
<ref>tag; no text was provided for refs namedBlastj31 - ↑ My San Antonio, "Larson deserves GOP nomination," February 11, 2018
- ↑ Cite error: Invalid
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