Phillip Huffines
Phillip Huffines (Republican Party) ran for election to the Texas State Senate to represent District 8. Huffines lost in the Republican primary on March 6, 2018.
Huffines ran in one of 48 contested Republican state legislative 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.
Elections
2018
- See also: Texas State Senate elections, 2018
General election
General election for Texas State Senate District 8
Angela Paxton defeated Mark Phariss in the general election for Texas State Senate District 8 on November 6, 2018.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ |  | Angela Paxton (R) | 51.2 | 169,995 |
 | Mark Phariss (D)  | 48.8 | 162,157 | |
| Total votes: 332,152 | |||
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Democratic primary election
Democratic primary for Texas State Senate District 8
Mark Phariss defeated Brian Chaput in the Democratic primary for Texas State Senate District 8 on March 6, 2018.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Mark Phariss | 50.9 | 16,689 |
 | Brian Chaput | 49.1 | 16,094 | |
| Total votes: 32,783 | |||
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Republican primary election
Republican primary for Texas State Senate District 8
Angela Paxton defeated Phillip Huffines in the Republican primary for Texas State Senate District 8 on March 6, 2018.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Angela Paxton | 54.4 | 32,653 |
 | Phillip Huffines | 45.6 | 27,421 | |
| Total votes: 60,074 | |||
| = 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. | ||||
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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?
| No. |
What made this a race to watch?
| The Dallas Morning News identified this Republican primary as competitive. It was an open seat contested by Angela Paxton, the wife of Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R), and Phillip Huffines, the brother of state Sen. Donald Huffines (R) and the Dallas County Republican Party chairman.[1] An issue in the campaign was the candidates' campaign finance history. Paxton emphasized Huffines' past donations to Democrats (he said he gave to them because they agreed with Texans for Lawsuit Reform on some policies), while Huffines has said some of Paxton's donations were linked to former state Sen. John Carona (R), who his brother Donald defeated in a 2014 Republican primary.[2] On February 13, Paxton released a campaign ad emphasizing Huffines' donations to Democrats. Huffines' campaign released a campaign flyer saying that Paxton did not support term limits for politicians, that her campaign was linked to lobbyists, and that she and her husband had increased their personal wealth during their time in politics.[3] In response, Paxton's campaign manager wrote on Facebook that Huffines was engaging in "politics of personal destruction" and that "[it's] clear for anyone to see that his naked political ambition knows no bounds, that there is no line he won't cross."[4] After Huffines released an ad that claimed Angela and Ken Paxton had used public office to enrich themselves, Ken Paxton released a statement that said, "Phillip Huffines’ negative and untruthful attack is disappointing because he gave his word he would run a clean campaign."[5] On February 6, the Texas Tribune reported that Attorney General Paxton's campaign was guaranteeing a $2 million loan to his wife's campaign. The Tribune also reported that Huffines had loaned himself millions of dollars and fives times more cash on hand than Paxton prior to the loan.[6] On March 1, Ken Paxton disclosed a $500,000 loan to his wife's campaign.[7] According to KERA News, the race was the most expensive state legislative contest in Texas.[8] In its endorsement of Paxton's campaign, the Dallas Morning News said, "On the issues, the differences between first-time candidates Angela Paxton and Phillip Huffines are razor-thin. Both are staunch social and fiscal conservatives who are spending big bucks to woo essentially the same far-right Republican primary voters in the conservative state Senate District 8." The editorial board said that it endorsed Paxton over Huffines due to her background in education.[9] On February 20, Paxton's campaign released an internal poll showing her with a 47 percent to 32 percent lead over Huffines. The polling memo said, "While Huffines may recover a little from being staggered and the race may tighten heading into Election Day, the political winds are clearly at Paxton’s back."[10] Endorsements and support for Huffines
Endorsements and support for Paxton
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Debates
Texas Tribune split interview
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Campaign advertisements
Phillip Huffines - support
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Phillip Huffines - oppose
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- On February 23, Paxton's campaign released this ad accusing Huffines of not paying taxes and attempting to influence an election in order to raise tax revenue for a development he was working on.
Angela Paxton - support
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Angela Paxton - oppose
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Campaign finance
See also
- State legislative elections, 2018
- Texas State Senate elections, 2018
- State legislative special elections, 2018
- Texas State Senate
- Texas State Legislature
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ Cite error: Invalid
<ref>tag; no text was provided for refs namedGROMER - ↑ Texas Tribune, "The Blast," January 25, 2018
- ↑ Texas Tribune, "The Blast," February 9, 2018
- ↑ Facebook, "Michelle Smith," February 9, 2018
- ↑ Texas Tribune, "The Blast," February 14, 2018
- ↑ Texas Tribune, "The Blast," February 6, 2018
- ↑ Cite error: Invalid
<ref>tag; no text was provided for refs namedBlastm1 - ↑ KERA News, "Paxton, Huffines Spend Millions In GOP Bid For Texas’ Only Open State Senate Seat," February 12, 2018
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 Dallas Morning News, "We recommend Angela Paxton in the GOP primary for state Senate District 8," February 14, 2018
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 10.2 Cite error: Invalid
<ref>tag; no text was provided for refs namedBlastf20 - ↑ Cite error: Invalid
<ref>tag; no text was provided for refs namedBlastf12 - ↑ Texas Tribune, "The Blast," February 16, 2018
- ↑ Cite error: Invalid
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