You've probably never heard off Mary Wilson. She only managed to raise a measly $40,000 while running for Texas Congressional District 21. The former math teacher was literally outspent by every other candidate in yesterday's primary.



In comparison, Joseph Kopser raised about $770,000, received a slew of endorsements and a ton of press coverage. Derrick Crowe, a former Nancy Pelosi staffer, and Elliott McFadden, the former Travis County executive director also raised far more than Wilson and received endorsements from prominent groups.

Still, Wilson is the one headed to a runoff with Kopser. In fact, she received almost 1,000 more votes than Kopser.

Judging by her web page, Wilson is a minister of the almost forgotten, progressive side of the church.

It’s hard to know for sure what fueled her surprising performance, but it’s certainly possible that Democrats decided that, given a choice, they wanted to cast their vote for a woman. Wilson agreed that being the sole woman in a four-way race with three men likely played a role.

It's an understatement to say that being a woman had a distinct advantage yesterday in Texas.



Everyone expected a closer race between Jay Hulings and Gina Ortiz Jones in the 23rd district, a perennial swing seat running from San Antonio to the edge of El Paso. Instead, Jones surged to 41 percent of the vote.

Overall that means every Emily's List endorsed candidate has either won or reached a runoff.

Incumbents State Rep. Tomas Uresti and State Rep. Diana Arévalo both lost re-election bids, and District Attorney Nico LaHood lost to veteran defense lawyer Joe Gonzales in a landslide.

The headline race was Texas' 7th District, where the DCCC went nuclear on a progressive candidate just weeks before the election.

It totally backfired on them.



Laura Moser, despite an attack from her own party, made it through the first round of a Texas primary on Tuesday, winning a place in a runoff against Lizzie Pannill Fletcher, an EMILY’s List-backed candidate.

... Had the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee spent money to boost the campaign of Westin instead of going negative against Moser, Westin may have moved forward into the runoff. Indeed, had the DCCC done nothing at all, Westin may have survived — The Intercept noted on the morning of the party committee’s intervention he was surging in the final weeks of the campaign, as his progressive platform, impressive medical credentials, and endorsement by the Houston Chronicle combined to give him a last-minute boost.

Westin finished a strong third, and considering his progressive credentials, many of those votes will now go to Moser.

Alex Triantaphyllis, a former Goldman Sachs banker who told voters he was recruited by the DCCC, raised the most money in the race, and finished 4th.

Fletcher, championed by the DCCC and Emily's List, is the perfect candidate for the Republican Party.



Fletcher earned the un-endorsement for her work as a partner at AZA Law, a firm that largely represents employers and won a major case against local janitorial workers represented by the SEIU, who were predominantly immigrants. AZA Law boasted, in its effort to attract future business from employers, that it won the case in part by studying the social media feeds of the jury pool to make sure the jury was stacked with Trump supporters.

The case was ideologically motivated to destroy labor: PJS, the firm’s client, was involved with Empower Texans, a right-wing group working to undermine organized labor in Texas.