To replace one of the biggest policy wonks in Texas’ congressional delegation, Republicans skipped over a long list of political insiders and chose former MLB player Mark Teixeira.
With votes still coming in, Teixeira was taking 61.61% of the vote in a 12-way GOP primary. He secured the Republican nomination for the deep red 21st Congressional District without a runoff.
He’ll face Democratic nominee Kristin Hook, a former scientist for the National Institutes of Health, in November.
Unlike incumbent U.S. Rep. Chip Roy (R-Dripping Springs), who spent his career working for various Texas GOP leaders before running for Congress in 2018, Teixeira is new to politics.
He started his career with the Texas Rangers in 2003, played 14 seasons of professional baseball in Atlanta, Los Angeles and New York before moving his family back to Texas.
“This is the first time I have run for anything. I didn’t run for student council as a kid. I have never run for anything in my life,” Teixeira told a gathering of the Young Republicans of Bexar County at the Magic Time Machine last month.
While many professional athletes have used their public voices to push for social progress, Teixeira has spent the last six months making it clear he’s no moderate.
He defended ICE agents on social media after the first civilian was shot in Minnesota, and regularly accused Democrats of stealing elections.
Speaking to the young Republican group last month, Teixeira said that all of the candidates in his GOP primary agree on “securing the border, growing the economy, shrinking government, lowering taxes, protecting life, protecting the Second Amendment.”
But what sets him apart, he said, is his promise to hold fellow Republicans in Congress accountable on social issues where they’ve let Democrats drive the conversation.
Teixeira listed banning biological men from playing women’s sports and requiring proof of citizenship to vote as two issues he can’t imagine that a Republican-controlled House hasn’t tackled yet.
“Those are two things that, if I was in Congress right now, I would be hammering every single day,” he told the crowd.
Big shoes to fill
Roy, who is running for Attorney General this year instead of reelection, did not endorse a successor.
At his own campaign rally on Monday, Roy joked that between his seven years working for U.S. Sens. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and John Cornyn (R-Texas) before running for Congress, “I know the Senate better than most senators,” and was ready for a bigger role.
When Roy announced his plans to leave the congressional seat, the race to replace him drew many candidates brought deep political resumes — Trey Trainor twice chaired the FEC and Michael Wheeler was an adviser to the U.S. Small Business Administration.
But Teixeira blew them out of the water by self-funding his campaign to the tune of $2.75 million, something GOP leaders hope will keep their party from having to spend resources protecting the district in the general election.
In the wake of a Jan. 30 special election that saw a deep-red Fort Worth state Senate seat swing 31 points to support a Democrat in January, Republicans have been eager to wrap up messy primaries — even in districts that should be safely red.
In the days after that race, President Donald Trump and national outside groups like the Club for Growth came in to help Teixeira avoid a runoff.
Former Bexar GOP chair Kyle Sinclair even ended his campaign to support Trump’s chosen candidate.
“This race is at an inflection point,” Sinclair said at the time. “The right move now is unite behind Mark so we can win TX21 and start governing effectively.”
Fresh interest from Democrats
Democrats have also been adjusting their strategy to make a play for deep-red seats, and held a forum to interview their own three primary candidates in February.
The district stretches from Northwest San Antonio up to the Hill Country to pull in some of the most conservative parts of the state.
Under new boundaries, it would have given Trump 60.2% of its vote in 2024 — similar to how it performed under the existing lines.
But redistricting made it a more San Antonio-centric seat, leaving some local Democrats eager to put up a fight for it in 2026.
On Tuesday, Democrats renominated their 2024 candidate, Hook, a former scientist for the NIH who worked for U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and moved to San Antonio during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Hook was taking 61.53% of the vote in a three-way race with VA trauma therapist Regina Vanburg, who some believed would have more ability to connect with the district’s Hill Country territory, and retired high school teacher Gary Taylor.
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