Control of the Texas House in Flux, With Elections in North Texas Significant

Dallas Morning News

Robert T. Garrett

AUSTIN – Control of the Texas House is up for grabs and will be decided this fall in a handful of districts, many of them in Dallas County.

Both parties have challenges but reasons for high hopes, too.

Republicans, who hold a 77-73 edge, need to squelch potential fallout from an unusually large number of primary challenges.

And they’ll be campaigning against incumbent Democrats without help from their fundraising whiz of the past two decades, former Speaker Tom Craddick, R-Midland.

Democrats probably lack a ticket-topper who can fire up young and minority voters the way Barack Obama did in 2008.

They also must interrupt a raucous national political conversation to bring a message to suburban independents that Republicans who run state government have harmed students, commuters and families.