Deep Purple: A Look Back at Senate District 19's Three-Year Political Whirlwind

November 10, 2020 - South and West Texas

By Jade Esteban Estrada, Political Columnist, San Antonio Sentinel

The day after the general election, Texas State Senator Pete Flores, R-Pleasanton, conceded the race against Democratic challenger Roland Gutierrez for the District 19 seat in the Texas Senate.

Though a valuable win for state Democrats in the upper chamber, the 10,346 votes that made the difference seemed to magnify the upward trend of conservatism in the once historically blue district.

Gutierrez won 49.86 percent of votes (156,741 votes) compared to Flores’ 46.57 percent (146,395 votes), and Libertarian candidate Jo-Ann Valdivia claimed 3.57 percent (11,218 votes), according to results posted by the Texas Secretary of State.

These final tallies marked the end of an almost three-year political whirlwind that began with a Netflix-ready scandal, whose rippling effect on the South and West Texas political landscape both elevated and cut short career trajectories.

SD-19 is one of the largest legislative districts in the state. It stretches across 17 counties covering 35,000 square miles and it includes 400 miles of the Texas-Mexico border. And perhaps most important to this story, until 2018, it had been in Democratic hands since the Reconstruction era. 

So what happened exactly? Let’s jump into the political DeLorean and take a look.

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The most loyal of Democrats may never forget the beginning of this blue streak’s end, when Senator Carlos Uresti, who had served SD-19 for 12 years, was found guilty of 11 federal felony charges related to a Ponzi scheme in February 2018. His resignation was effective in June of that year, after which the swift process of electing his successor began. 

Four Democrats, three Republicans, and one Libertarian announced plans to compete for the open seat. 

One of the three Republicans was Flores, who ran for the position in 2016, but lost to the then-popular former senator.

On the Democratic side, Pete Gallego, a former U.S. congressman who served Texas’ 23rd District, former House member Tomas Uresti (brother of the former senator), and sitting State Representative Roland Gutierrez, were three of the four Democrats that put their name in the hat. 

Ultimately, Flores and Gallego advanced to a September runoff. The more progressive Gutierrez came in third place.

With a steady spotlight on Gallego, Democrats were able to move forward. In retrospect, however, it seems that the well-known politician may have leaned too heavily on his perceived name recognition, while his cowboy hat-wearing opponent ran like he was losing, dominating television air time with campaign ads. Additionally, Beto O’Rourke’s messianic run for U.S. Senate may have boosted confidence among Democratic strategists, possibly fueling the dangerous assumption that young, progressive voters would also galvanize behind the less charismatic Gallego. But the former congressman didn’t - or couldn’t - benefit from the Beto movement, partly because the special election runoff took place two months prior to the general election, which almost guaranteed a low-voter turnout. 

The election to fill Uresti’s seat culminated in a jaw-dropping Republican upset - Flores won 56.7 percent of the vote, leaving Democrats to debate for months what went wrong.

Flores became not only the first Republican to represent the sprawling district since the 1870s, but also the first Hispanic Republican to win the seat.

As Flores finished the remainder of Uresti's term, Gutierrez, who was nearing the end of his sixth term in the Texas House, waited in the wings - but he wasn't the only Dem with eyes on the Senate seat. Xochil Peña Rodriguez, daughter of Judge Ciro Davis Rodriguez, another former U.S. Representative who served Texas’ 23rd Congressional District, was ready to hit the campaign trail, as was newcomer Freddy Ramirez, a Bexar County prosecutor.

Ahead of the 2020 Democratic primary, Gutierrez referred to Flores as “a rubber stamp” for Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick, who largely controls the Texas Senate.

Ramirez was eliminated in the March primary, and Gutierrez and Peña Rodriguez advanced to a contentious runoff, which Gutierrez ultimately won.

With a formidable nominee on the November ticket, state Democrats could focus on their goal of blocking Patrick’s agenda in the Senate, which could happen if Gutierrez were to prevail. In the long term, flipping SD-19 is, in the eyes of some Democrats, the road to reclaiming power in the upper chamber. 

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On November 3, Democrats received a reminder of why Texas is characterized as the biggest and reddest battleground state. The defeated senator, who closely aligned himself with President Donald J. Trump's agenda, was able to flip Brewster, Frio, Reeves, and Val Verde counties from blue to red in comparison to 2018. 

Because Texas Democrats were unable to deliver their state’s 38 electoral votes to former Vice President Joe Biden, and Election Night was rife with down-ballot disappointments, Gutierrez’s triumph was meaningful. There were, however, other success stories worth noting. Rebecca Bell-Metereau won the District 5 seat on the State Board of Education, and the congressional districts Dems picked up in 2018 were protected. In the Texas State Judiciary, Darlene Byrne won her race for chief justice of the 3rd Court of Appeals and Rebeca Martinez will be sworn in as the new chief justice of the 4th Court of Appeals in January. But not picking up the nine Texas House seats Democrats were hoping for was a sting.

Amid attempts at voter suppression and voter intimidation, however, these statewide wins were significant.

“Yesterday’s election results were not what we had hoped for, but this campaign has come to an end,” Flores' statement read. “I send my heartfelt thanks to the people of the District. I appreciate the opportunity to serve as their State Senator for the 86th Session.”

In January, Gutierrez will be sworn in as the district’s new state senator.

Jade Esteban Estrada is a political columnist for the San Antonio Sentinel, where he covers election news for the San Antonio and Bexar County area. He’s also the Glitter Political columnist for the San Antonio Current. jade@sasentinel.com | Twitter: @getjaded