Republican State Rep. Justin Holland (Heath), who currently represents Texas House District 33, officially received two Republican primary election challengers on Monday.

The new district boundaries include portions of the cities of Wylie and Plano and no longer include the cities of Frisco, Prosper, or Anna.

The Incumbent

Holland was first elected to the position in November of 2016, succeeding former conservative Republican State Rep. Scott Turner (Rockwall) after he served on the Heath City Council for 5 years.

Holland has a career rating of an ‘F’ from Texans for Fiscal Responsibility on their Fiscal Responsibility Index and a 60 on the legislative ratings for Texas Right to Life in 2019.

Holland voted against amendment attempts by Republican State Rep. Bryan Slaton (Royse City) to the House Rules of Procedure that would have required House committees to be led by lawmakers that were members of the majority party at the outset of the 87th regular legislative session in January. Several Democrat House lawmakers, which included chairmen of key House committees, aided in preventing a quorum multiple times, to include over the summer paralyzing the Texas Legislature for upwards of 37 days. Even though quorum was eventually restored, none of those lawmakers were penalized.

The Challengers

Both of Holland’s challengers are military veterans. Dennis London, a U.S. Marine Corps veteran, and cybersecurity business owner moved from California to Texas in 2018. Scott LaMarca, a U.S. Army veteran, is a construction business owner.

Both filed their candidacies with the Texas GOP on Monday, after having announced weeks earlier.

Holland joins a number of House Republicans who have received multiple primary challenges from the right in previous weeks.

What is Next?

The candidate filing deadline is Monday, December 13, so it is still possible additional candidates are forthcoming. The primary election is currently scheduled for March 1, 2022.

Jeramy Kitchen

Jeramy Kitchen serves as the Capitol Correspondent for Texas Scorecard as well as host of 'This Week in Texas', a show previewing the week ahead in Texas politics. After managing campaigns for conservative legislators across the state, serving as Chief of Staff for multiple conservative state legislators, and serving as Legislative Director for the largest public policy think tank in Texas, Jeramy moved outside of the Austin bubble to focus on bringing transparency to the legislative process.

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