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James Wilson (Texas)
James Wilson (Republican Party) ran for election to the Texas House of Representatives to represent District 150. Wilson lost in the Republican primary on March 6, 2018.
Wilson 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.
Wilson previously was a 2014 Republican candidate for District 7 of the Texas State Senate.[1]
Biography
James Wilson lives in Harris County, Texas. He graduated from South Garland High School. He earned a bachelor's degree in government from the University of Texas at Austin.[2] Wilson's career experience includes working as a business owner[2] and as the president of Wilson Risk Management LLC.[3]
Campaign themes
2014
Wilson’s website highlighted the following campaign themes:[4]
- EDUCATION
- Excerpt: "We must continue to improve our public education system to provide students with the skills they need to compete in a global economy, and to provide local businesses with the highly skilled workers they seek to hire."
- INFRASTRUCTURE
- Excerpt: "The strengths of our community (good schools, friendly people, and a competitive economy) have resulted in incredible growth rates locally. This growth has resulted in a strain on our local transportation and utilities infrastructure. We must continue to invest in roads and bridges, water supplies, and electric generation facilities to ensure our continued success."
- PUBLIC SAFETY
- Excerpt: "Our growing communities must have adequate professional law enforcement and emergency services personnel to protect our families. Our first responders should have the tools they need to do their jobs in order to keep us safe. Our state police must have the necessary tools to fight crime that comes across our borders, including drug cartels and human trafficking."
- ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
- Excerpt: "Good jobs and good schools will continue to contribute to our success, but our local economy needs more high quality businesses to expand and relocate to our area. Local businesses create jobs and contribute to our economy in many valuable ways. We must do everything practical to attract employers to our community that are committed to creating high skill and high wage employment opportunties [sic]."
Elections
2018
General election
General election for Texas House of Representatives District 150
Incumbent Valoree Swanson defeated Michael Shawn Kelly in the general election for Texas House of Representatives District 150 on November 6, 2018.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ |  | Valoree Swanson (R) | 57.8 | 40,907 |
 | Michael Shawn Kelly (D)  | 42.2 | 29,888 | |
| Total votes: 70,795 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
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Democratic primary election
Democratic primary for Texas House of Representatives District 150
Michael Shawn Kelly advanced from the Democratic primary for Texas House of Representatives District 150 on March 6, 2018.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Michael Shawn Kelly | 100.0 | 5,012 |
| Total votes: 5,012 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Republican primary election
Republican primary for Texas House of Representatives District 150
Incumbent Valoree Swanson defeated James Wilson in the Republican primary for Texas House of Representatives District 150 on March 6, 2018.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Valoree Swanson | 80.1 | 9,530 |
 | James Wilson | 19.9 | 2,366 | |
| Total votes: 11,896 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
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?
| James Wilson challenged state Rep. and Freedom Caucus member Valoree Swanson in her primary. As of January 31, 2018, only Swanson had signed the form committing to vote for the Republican caucus' choice for speaker on the House floor. Endorsements for Swanson
Endorsements for Wilson
|
Campaign finance
2014
- See also: Texas State Senate elections, 2014
Elections for 15 of the 31 seats in the Texas State Senate took place in 2014. A primary election took place on March 4, 2014. The general election was held on November 4, 2014. The signature filing deadline for candidates wishing to run in these elections was December 9, 2013. Paul Bettencourt defeated James Wilson in the Republican primary. Jim Davis ran unopposed in the Democratic primary. Bettencourt defeated Davis and Whitney Bilyeu (L) in the general election.[1][7][8]
| Party | Candidate | Vote % | Votes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Republican |  Paul Bettencourt |
71.8% | 123,551 | |
| Democratic | Jim Davis | 26.3% | 45,230 | |
| Libertarian | Whitney Bilyeu | 1.9% | 3,244 | |
| Total Votes | 172,025 | |||
2012
Wilson ran in the 2012 election for Texas House of Representatives, District 150. Wilson was defeated by incumbent Debbie Riddle in the May 29 primary election.[9][10]
| Candidate | Vote % | Votes |
|---|---|---|
|
Debbie Riddle |
80.9% | 9,010 |
| James Wilson | 19.1% | 2,133 |
| Total Votes | 11,143 | |
Personal
Note: Please contact us if the personal information below requires an update.
Wilson and his wife, Paige, have two children.[2]
See also
- State legislative elections, 2018
- Texas House of Representatives elections, 2018
- State legislative special elections, 2018
- Texas House of Representatives
- Texas State Legislature
- Texas state legislative districts
- Texas State Senate
- Texas State Senate elections, 2014
External links
- Search Google News for this topic
- Campaign website
- Campaign Facebook page
- Campaign Twitter page
- LinkedIn page
- Texas Legislature website
- Biography from The Texas Tribune
Footnotes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Texas Secretary of State, "1992 - Current ELECTION HISTORY," accessed December 2, 2014
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Facebook, "James Wilson," accessed February 12, 2018
- ↑ LinkedIn, "James Wilson," accessed February 12, 2018
- ↑ wilsonfortexas.com, "My Platform," accessed February 19, 2014
- ↑ Cite error: Invalid
<ref>tag; no text was provided for refs namedBlastf14 - ↑ Houston Chronicle, "For House District 150: James Richard Wilson," February 18, 2018
- ↑ Green Party of Texas, "Greens Release Candidate List," accessed July 26, 2014
- ↑ The Libertarian Party of Texas, "2014 Texas Senate Candidates List," accessed July 26, 2014
- ↑ Texas Secretary of State, "2012 Election and Candidate Information," accessed June 12, 2012
- ↑ Office of the (Texas) Secretary of State, "Race Summary Report," accessed July 12, 2012
