AUSTIN, Texas (AP) _ George P. Bush is seeking re-election as Texas land commissioner next year, hoping to continue running a little-known but powerful agency in a state where his political-dynasty family has been prominent for decades.
Bush unveiled a campaign website early Monday, and was emailing supporters.
His grandfather, President George H.W. Bush, was once a Texas congressman and his uncle, George W. Bush, left Texas’ governorship for the presidency.
Bush was elected land commissionership in 2014 _ the first Bush to win an election on his first try.
After his father, Jeb, left last year’s presidential race, Bush broke with his relatives and campaigned publicly for then-candidate Donald Trump.
The land commissioner’s office regulates oil exploration on Texas’ 13 million acres of public land. Bush also has overseen a $450-million remodel of the Alamo.
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ROUND ROCK, Texas (AP) – A Texas Democratic Party’s former finance chairman and a failed state comptroller candidate has formally launched his challenge of Republican Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick.
Mike Collier made his 2018 lieutenant governor campaign announcement Saturday at a rally in Round Rock, near Austin.
Collier, who’s an accountant from Houston, was 2014’s Democratic nominee for comptroller, but lost to Republican Glenn Hegar.
Collier has for months said he planned to challenge Patrick, a former conservative talk radio host who was has used the lieutenant governorship to push the Texas Senate farther right.
A Democrat hasn’t won statewide office in Texas since 1994.
Some conservatives say Patrick could challenge Gov. Greg Abbott in next year’s GOP primary, but Patrick insists he’ll seek re-election – making him that race’s overwhelming favorite.