Coppell Chronicle Bonus Edition: Super Tuesday
Hernandez and Eppler cruise into November showdowns with Jun and Van Duyne
Good morning! I hope your Super Tuesday was … well, super. I didn’t want to wait until Sunday to report on the primary elections’ results, so I put together this bonus edition of the Coppell Chronicle.
Vol. 4, No. 3 of the Chronicle — which will be sent to only paid subscribers on Sunday — will include a look inside one of the Amazon fulfillment centers here in Coppell. It will also cover the Coppell ISD trustees’ recent discussion of potentially calling a tax-ratification election. If you’re not a paid subscriber, consider upgrading for $5 per month or just $30 per year.
OK, with that meek attempt at salesmanship behind us, let’s get to the election results. The name of each House, Senate, and Congressional district in this edition is linked to a map of its boundaries.
Hernandez Decisively Wins State House Race
A lot of observers — including this reporter — were expecting a runoff in House District 115, which includes all of Coppell other than its northern tip and all of Coppell ISD except for its southern end. Cassandra Hernandez surprised us by winning the Democratic primary outright with more than 58 percent of the votes. Coppell resident Kate Rumsey finished in second place with 31 percent, and Scarlett Cornwallis was a distant third with 11 percent.
Hernandez advances to a November showdown with Coppell Mayor Pro Tem John Jun, who was the only Republican candidate for this seat. That should be a lively affair. Weeks before securing the nomination, Hernandez included Jun’s face in a graphic that her campaign shared on social media and in targeted text messages. He was pictured alongside former President Donald Trump, Gov. Greg Abbott, and Attorney General Ken Paxton above these words: “They want to go backwards.”
In other legislative districts that touch Coppell or Coppell ISD …
• Residents of the Denton County portion of Coppell live in House District 63, where incumbent Rep. Ben Bumgarner fended off two challengers — Vincent Gallo and Carlos Andino — by capturing 59 percent of the votes in the Republican primary. Bumgarner’s opponent in November will be Michelle Beckley, who formerly represented House District 65 and was a candidate for lieutenant governor two years ago. She defeated Denise Wooten on Tuesday by earning 66 percent of the Democratic votes.
• The southern end of Coppell ISD is in House District 105, where incumbent Democrat Terry Meza will square off with Republican Rose Cannaday, a former member of the Irving City Council. Both were unopposed in their primaries.
• State Sen. Nathan Johnson used to represent all of Coppell and Coppell ISD, but thanks to redistricting, Senate District 16 now includes only the southern end of Coppell ISD. Johnson was challenged in the Democratic primary by state Rep. Victoria Neave Criado, who secured 40 percent of the votes to his 60 percent. There are no Republican candidates for this seat.
• The rest of Coppell ISD is in the oh-so-expansive Senate District 12, where incumbent Sen. Tan Parker will face Democrat Stephanie Draper in November. Neither of them was opposed in their primaries.
Eppler Emerges in Congressional Campaign
Democrat Sam Eppler cruised to victory in Congressional District 24, which includes the vast majority of both Coppell and Coppell ISD. He secured 59 percent of the votes in his contest against Francine Ly. Eppler, a former teacher and principal in Dallas ISD, is a first-time candidate, while Ly was the Democratic nominee in Senate District 12 two years ago. He advances to face Republican Beth Van Duyne, a former Irving mayor who is seeking her third term in Congress; she was unopposed in the primary.
In other Congressional districts that overlap with Coppell or Coppell ISD …
• The Denton County portion of Coppell is in Congressional District 26, which stretches all the way to the Red River. Michael Burgess is retiring after 11 terms, and 11 Republicans vied to replace him. Despite the vast size of that field, Brandon Gill, the son-in-law of author and commentator Dinesh D’Souza, avoided a runoff by capturing 58 percent of the votes. (Former Coppell ISD Trustee Neena Biswas finished in eighth place with 2 percent.)
Gill was undoubtedly boosted by the endorsements he received from Trump and Sen. Ted Cruz. He will almost certainly crush Ernest Lineberger III, the district’s only Democratic candidate, in November.
• Congressional District 33 includes Valley Ranch and Cypress Waters. Democrat Marc Veasey, who has represented the district since 2013, had no trouble getting past Carlos Quintanilla, who has run for this seat multiple times and also yelled at me one time. Veasey’s opponent in November will be Patrick David Gillespie, who vanquished Kurt Schwab in the GOP primary.
Odds and Ends
• Julie Johnson, who has represented most of Coppell in the Texas House since 2019, is giving up her District 115 seat because she’s trying to succeed Colin Allred in Congressional District 32. Despite having nine rivals in the Democratic primary, Johnson may have avoided a runoff. When more than 98 percent of the votes had been counted, she had 50.1 percent of them. The second-place candidate, Brian Williams, had 19 percent.
Jan McDowell, a three-time nominee in Congressional District 24, was in fourth place with nearly 5 percent. Alex Cornwallis, husband of Scarlett Cornwallis, was in eighth place with 3.2 percent.
Johnson will most likely advance to face either David Blewett or Darrell Day, who are definitely headed to a runoff in the Republican primary.
• Coppell is one of several cities suing Texas Comptroller Glenn Hegar over his proposed changes to how sales taxes on online transactions are distributed. State Rep. Morgan Meyer, a Republican from University Park, has filed bills that would turn Hegar’s proposal into law. Meyer had a primary challenger for the first time since he was initially elected to represent House District 108 in 2014. Meyer slipped past Barry Wernick with 51 percent of the votes. He advances to a November rematch with Elizabeth Ginsberg, the Democrat he defeated in 2022.
• Allen West, who once served a single term in Congress representing a Florida district, challenged Abbott in the GOP primary two years ago and finished a distant second to the incumbent governor. And by distant, I mean a million votes behind. Last night, however, West handily ousted Jennifer Stoddard-Hajdu, who was seeking a second term as Dallas County’s Republican Chair. He secured 70 percent of the votes.
Every time I see West’s name, I think about something that Shannon Watts, the founder of Moms Demand Action, said to him on Twitter a couple of years ago. Now that he’s won this election, I doubt he’ll take her advice.
“Ain’t that America for you and me? Ain’t that America? Hey, somethin’ to see, baby! Ain’t that America? Oh, the home of the free! Ooh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah …”
— John Mellencamp
Cassandra Hernandez released the following statement shortly after 10 a.m.: “I am so proud of the work our team did in covering HD115, from Irving to Dallas, Carrollton to Addison, Farmers Branch to Coppell, and even Lewisville. We built a diverse coalition – but our work’s not done yet. We’ll keep talking to our neighbors and community members as we ramp up for November. I’ll continue to advocate for standing up for our public schools, implementing bipartisan gun safety measures, and restoring our reproductive rights and local control that politicians in Austin took away from us – and that extremists like John Jun, my Republican opponent, will vote for if elected. I want to thank the voters of HD115 for placing their trust in me – and I look forward to earning the support of all the people of HD115 in the fall.”
Thanks for the concise information...much easier to digest than the DMN.