Democrats in the Corpus Christi area up through Palacio, Victoria & Gonzales nominate a guy who 1) doesn’t even live in Texas and 2) was also running in a Democrat congressional primary in California.
Ricardo “Rick” de la Fuente defeated Charlie Jackson in the race for the Democratic nomination in a congressional district.
De la Fuente beat Jackson by a margin of 61.5% to 38.5%.
The Austin American Statesman reports that Jackson complained to the Texas Secretary of State about de la Fuente’s residency status, noting that the “candidate is not a resident of Texas,” because he listed his California address in his campaign filing in that state.
Jackson says “he is attempting to commit election fraud by simultaneoussly running for office in both Texas and California.”
Texas Democratic Party Primary Director Glen Maxey says “the Constitution makes him eligible to file and run in Texas. I can’t affect what he does in California. He filed an application, paid his fee, he gets to ride the merry-go-round as a candidate here in Texas”.
Maxey adds “the Constitution states that a candidate for federal office must be a resident of Texas. It does not state the length of the residency.He claimed residency on this application with an address in Victoria. So he’s met the constitutional threshold of residency to run for Congress in Texas.”
De La Fuente lost the primary in California but here in Texas he will face Republican incumbent Michael Cloud.
Cloud won the seat in 2018 with 60 percent of the vote and was unopposed in the Republican primary.