Will Dallas County’s 2018 “blue wave” spill over into their conservative neighbor to the north this year?
Republicans in currently solid-red Collin County are being challenged up and down the November ballot by liberal Democrats hoping to flip a few seats from red to blue, including their congressional seats.
In Texas’ 3rd Congressional District, which covers much of Collin County, Democrats are funding a liberal labor attorney who until recently worked in California to try to unseat U.S. Rep. Van Taylor, the Republican incumbent.
In August, the national Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee added Taylor to their “offensive target list,” signaling they would pour big money into the race.
Taylor, a Marine Corps veteran with an MBA from Harvard, is well known in the district from his years serving in the Texas Legislature, where he earned a career “A+” rating on the Fiscal Responsibility Index.
He represented House District 66 in Plano from 2010-2014, then Senate District 8 covering Collin County from 2015-2018. With perfect “100” ratings, Taylor was known as “the most conservative member of the Texas Senate.”
In his first term serving in the U.S. House of Representatives, he also rated a “100” on the conservative Heritage Action Scorecard.
Taylor touts his membership in the bipartisan Problem Solvers Caucus and has continued to champion pro-taxpayer measures and veterans’ issues. He also maintains the 100 percent meeting policy with constituents he started while in state office.
The district is likely to stay in Republican hands this year; every partisan elected office in Collin County is held by a Republican, and Taylor defeated another unknown Democrat in 2018 to win the open seat with 54 percent of the vote. But Taylor has raised $2.5 million this election cycle to fend off his Democrat challenger, according to the latest campaign finance data reported by the Federal Election Commission.
Seikaly, a labor lawyer and political novice who also lives in Plano, grew up in Texas but reportedly worked in California until at least last year for a Sacramento-based law firm and as a professor at the University of California, Davis. Yet she used an address linked to her parents to vote in Texas in 2016 and 2018.
She is endorsed by several labor unions and pro-abortion groups.
Seikaly’s campaign has raised $1.1 million, with much of it funneled through ActBlue PAC, a fundraiser for Democrats.
In 2018, Democrats’ “blue wave” was boosted by voters casting straight-ticket ballots for failed Senate candidate Beto O’Rourke, but straight-party voting is no longer an option.
Libertarian Christopher Claytor is also on the ballot.
Early voting is underway now through October 30. Election Day is November 3.
