Happy Merry Filing Deadline Eve!
Deep Dives
Explore related topics with these Wikipedia articles, rewritten for enjoyable reading:
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Texas Democratic Party
14 min read
The article extensively discusses Texas Democratic primary races, internal party tensions between progressive and conservative Democrats, and the party's struggles in statewide elections - understanding the party's history and structure provides essential context
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Ballot access
12 min read
The article centers on filing deadlines, candidate applications, and the bureaucratic process of getting on the ballot - understanding ballot access laws and procedures illuminates why the author is tracking these filings so closely
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Primary election
12 min read
The article discusses numerous primary challenges against incumbent Democrats and questions why challengers are running - understanding primary election mechanics, history, and their role in American democracy provides valuable context for these intraparty contests
Yesterday, I spent hours tracking down every candidate’s website, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and stray campaign website I could find. (Note to candidates: if you’re already on the ballot, please launch a website soon, so I can stop looking.) The updated lists:
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And speaking of things that take too much time… the Secretary of State’s website. Lord. Have. Mercy.
Because Jane Nelson is apparently running the SOS from a potato, I’ve had to rely on county party filings to figure out who’s actually on the ballot. Big shoutout to Tarrant, Dallas, and Bexar Dems for having their lists up. Y’all are doing the Lord’s work.
The process goes like this, once a county party accepts a candidate’s application, they’re officially on the ballot, and then the county has about a week to send that information to the SOS.
But apparently, the SOS website is updating the information from the counties slowly, so we might have more candidates quietly materializing next week, not because they’re new, but because the SOS website is slow, outdated, and run by someone who should not be anywhere near a state-level job.
I blame the Secretary of State Jane Nelson and her ongoing demonstration of what bureaucratic incompetence looks like. I blame Greg Abbott for appointing someone who couldn’t manage a lemonade stand, let alone a statewide election system. And mostly, I blame Republicans for breaking every institutional thing they touch.
What’s the count (so far)?
I know, everyone is dying to see if we’ll get there. Will we have every seat filled?
There are still several filings we expect tomorrow, and some may have been filed but aren’t showing up on the SOS website yet. But the deadline is 12/08/2025 at 6:00 pm, and here is where we are:
Congress:
Democrats are on 38 out of 38 seats
Republicans are on 36 out of 38 seats (so far)
SBOE
Democrats are on 8 out of 8 seats
Republicans are on 8 out of 8 seats
State Senate
Democrats
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