Kenny Marchant Is Fourth Texas Republican Not to Seek Re-Election

Rep. Kenny Marchant (R-TX) announced Monday he will not seek reelection, making him the fourth Republican lawmaker to vacate his seat in the Lone Star State ahead of 2020.

While Marchant said he will finish his term, he stated that he is looking forward to “returning to Texas to start a new chapter.”

“It is time for me to announce that I will not seek another term as Congressman from the 24th District of Texas,” Marchant announced Monday. “I am looking forward to finishing out my term and then returning to Texas to start a new chapter.”

Marchant, who was first elected in 2004, won the 24th House District by a relatively narrow margin in 2018– 50.6 percent to Democrat challenger Jan McDowell’s 47.5 percent. The district has been described as “highly competitive”:

The Marchant seat is suburban and increasingly diverse – same as many Texas metros.

It’s less than half-white, 23% Hispanic, 13% Asian, 11% black.

— Jonathan Martin (@jmartNYT) August 5, 2019

And, more broadly, this CD reflects the political realignment in the burbs. And the trade-off Rs are making w Trump.

Mitt won it by 22
Trump only by 6

And Marchant’s margin of victory has plunged:

‘14: 33%
‘16: 17%
‘18: 3%

— Jonathan Martin (@jmartNYT) August 5, 2019

His announcement comes on the heels of announcements from Reps. Pete Olson, Will Hurd, and K. Michael Conaway, all of whom said they will not seek reelection.

Like Marchant, Hurd narrowly beat his Democrat challenger in 2018, defeating Gina Ortiz Jones by less than one percent. The departures have sparked concern from Republicans, who fear a coming blue wave in the red state. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) predicted last week that Democrats are “going to work hard and win in Texas”:

Ponte las pilas por 2020, porque vamos a trabajar duro y ganar en Texas 😉 https://t.co/Ol40dDFg15

— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) August 2, 2019

Democrats reportedly spent $138 million on the last election cycle, which assisted them in taking coveted House seats. As Breitbart News reported, the GOP has been beefing up resources in Texas in hopes of preventing a blue wave on both congressional and executive levels:

Donors are reportedly strengthening efforts in the state and primarily focusing on GOP voter registration efforts. The broad goal involves registering at least one million new Republican voters ahead of 2020. One specific group, Engage Texas, led by Houston real estate developer Richard Weekley, hopes to raise millions ahead of the presidential election.

According to reports from the Washington Examiner, Engage Texas was “set up as a 501(c)4, political nonprofit organization and plans to raise and spend $25 million by Election Day next year.”

“One of the things that we face as a challenge in Texas is people assume that Texas always has been and always will be red,” Republican Party of Texas chairman James Dickey told  Sirius XM’s Breitbart News Saturday in April. “That’s not true. It was only 16 years ago that Republicans even took the Texas House.”

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy spoke exclusively to Breitbart News Saturday over the weekend and broke down the plan for Republicans to take back the House in 2020. He believes the Democrat Party’s mass embrace of socialism could lead to its demise in the House– at least in 2020.

“There are 31 seats that Democrats sit in today that President Trump carried,” McCarthy explained.

“Of those 31, 13 of them President Trump carried by more than six points. So, here you have the socialist wing of the party trying to take them further left, when the only way they have the majority is actually winning in Republican areas—areas that would be swing districts,” he continued.

As Breitbart News reported:

Currently, Republicans hold 198 seats in the House. A majority in the House is 218 seats. So, if Republicans take back those 13 seats from Democrats in districts that Trump won by more than six percent, and seven more from the remaining 18 districts that Democrats represent that Trump won—while holding what they currently have—or find some other way to net gain 20 seats, they can retake the majority in 2020.

McCarthy continued:

 Look at what the policies this new socialist Democrat party is doing. They want to one, their first most important bill—when you become the majority, you reserve the first ten numbers for your most important bills—so their most important bill, H.R. 1, was to take your taxpayer money and give it to their campaigns.” Literally, tax the American public and give them thousands of dollars for their own campaigns. Then they have what is called Medicare for None. Medicare for None would take 180 million people’s healthcare away while at the same time bankrupt those who are currently on Medicare. It’s more government control.