Former Texas rep. eyes comeback

Former Rep. Pete Gallego (D-Texas) may be weighing a potential comeback bid just months after he lost his seat to freshman Rep. Will Hurd (R).  

“A lot of interesting conversations lately with ppl who think I should run again,” Gallego tweeted Wednesday afternoon. “Am honored by all the support out there. Stay tuned.”

{mosads}Gallego lost the only competitive federal general election in the entire state, a nail biter with a margin of just 2,400 votes. While he didn’t commit to running again in an interview with the Texas Tribune, he certainly left the door open.

“I don’t know anyone who thinks that the last election was a referendum on me or my performance as a congressman,” he told the Tribune in an interview published Tuesday. “But having said that, it’s a little early.”

Texas’s 23rd congressional district in Texas spans a massive 58,000 square miles over much of the southwestern portion of the state. It’s an extremely volatile seat and has seen five different representatives since 2007, with incumbents frequently losing to upstart challengers from the other side of the aisle. 

Texas had no real competitive races at the top of the ticket in 2014—Democratic challengers in the gubernatorial race to replace retiring Gov. Rick Perry and the reelection of Sen. John Cornyn fell flat. While the state is a lock to stay red in the 2016 presidential race, voter turnout typically rises across the nation in presidential years.

Hurd, a former CIA agent, positioned himself as an outsider while slamming Gallego, a long-time state representative, as a “career politician” on his way towards victory in November. House leadership tapped Hurd to serve as a subcommittee chairman in the House Oversight Committee and as a member of the Homeland Security Committee. 

Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee Chairman Ben Ray Luján (N.M.) told the Texas Tribune that he’s “excited” about Gallego’s potential bid and that he’s “confident” that the 2016 landscape would create the “tailwinds of a more favorable electorate.”