{"id":159570,"date":"2025-08-19T23:03:16","date_gmt":"2025-08-19T23:03:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/159570\/"},"modified":"2025-08-19T23:03:16","modified_gmt":"2025-08-19T23:03:16","slug":"state-rep-philip-cortez-draws-primary-challenger-in-hd117","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/159570\/","title":{"rendered":"State Rep. Philip Cortez draws primary challenger in HD117"},"content":{"rendered":"

When most of his Democratic colleagues decamped to Illinois to stop President Donald Trump\u2019s redistricting plan<\/a> last month, state Rep. Philip Cortez (D-San Antonio) was one of the few members of his party still showing up for work at the Texas Capitol.<\/p>\n

Now at least one fellow Democrat hopes to capitalize off Cortez\u2019 absence from the quorum break by jumping into the 2026 Democratic primary in Texas House District 117<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The race could make Cortez the latest in a long line<\/a> of political moderates<\/a> whose districts were made safer for their party after the 2020 census \u2014 and opened them up to new primary threats in the process.<\/p>\n

Robert Mihara, a U.S. Army veteran and West Point graduate, filed a campaign treasurer\u2019s report in February signaling interest in the race but will hold a formal campaign kickoff at the Cove this month, aimed at capitalizing on Cortez\u2019 decision at a time when other Democrats are taking a victory lap<\/a> on delaying Texas\u2019 new congressional maps.<\/p>\n

\u201cI do have obviously other reasons why I\u2019m running, but in my mind, the quorum break was a impetus to act more aggressively,\u201d said Mihara, 48, who is currently running a San Antonio nonprofit that provides legal services for low-income and at-risk clients. \u201c \u2026 At a moment that demanded courage, he chose convenience.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cortez, 47, first won the Southwest state House district when it was a swing district fought over by Republicans and Democrats alike.<\/p>\n

The Air Force veteran defeated a Republican incumbent in 2012, lost to a GOP challenger in 2014, and won it back for his party in 2016.<\/p>\n

But the district was redrawn to favor Democrats by a wide margin in 2021, and like many other political centrists in a gerrymandered state, Cortez\u2019s once-celebrated relationships across the aisle are now looking like a double-edged sword.<\/p>\n

As Mihara put it, \u201cin the given situation where the GOP in Texas specifically is prone to abuse of power \u2026 [Cortez\u2019s] approach won\u2019t work anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n

Democrats in distress<\/p>\n

After major losses in November, already outnumbered Texas Democrats have few levers of power left to push back on policies they don\u2019t like.<\/p>\n

The GOP\u2019s redistricting plan is likely to be approved<\/a> by the Republican-controlled House any day now that Democrats have returned to the capitol this week.<\/p>\n

But Democratic leaders say<\/a> that leaving the state allowed their counterparts in blue states to strategize their own mid-cycle redistricting plans and make up congressional seats lost in Texas.<\/p>\n

Cortez contends that even though he didn\u2019t join colleagues in Illinois, he fully supported their effort and had the blessing of Democratic leaders to stay behind.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis year things have changed in terms of my family life \u2014 my wife and I welcomed a newborn baby girl<\/a> \u2014 and logistically, it was difficult for me to leave the state for an extended amount of time,\u201d Cortez said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI let them know that I wasn\u2019t able to break quorum, but I was going to stand with them and do everything I can to stop [Republicans\u2019 redistricting effort].\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"Candidate Robert Mihara. Credit: Courtesy \/ Robert Mihara<\/p>\n

But Cortez has taken plenty of criticism for his closeness to GOP leaders, including another notable defection from a quorum break<\/a> in 2021 to negotiate on Republicans\u2019 controversial election security proposals.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was told by the Republican leadership at that time that we can work out some compromises, that they were willing to give ground on a couple of those pieces of legislation,\u201d Cortez recalled of that decision this week. \u201cWhen I arrived, I was met with a different message and a different understanding \u2026 so I went back to D.C. and joined my colleagues.\u201d<\/p>\n

To Mihara, those decisions are at odds with a Democratic Party that desperately needs to make voters aware of what Republicans are doing and present an compelling alternative.<\/p>\n

\u201cPart of the reason why I am running is my belief that the representative that we have in Austin needs to be a fighter by nature,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Criticism aside, Cortez said he\u2019s raising money and gearing up for a seventh term.<\/p>\n

\u201cI vote for what I believe is the best interest of my district,\u201d Cortez said of his apolitical approach. \u201cI try to look at every public policy [through the lens of] the impact it\u2019s going to have to my senior citizens, impact to my veterans.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cortez reported about<\/a> $71,000 on hand as of July 15. Mihara loaned his campaign some seed money, and reported about $2,000<\/a> on hand.<\/p>\n

Candidate filing for the March primary opens November 8.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When most of his Democratic colleagues decamped to Illinois to stop President Donald Trump\u2019s redistricting plan last month,…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":159571,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5133],"tags":[17032,5229,92502,7202,7203,358,92503,7453,3187,7815,67,586,132,5230,68,2969,7819],"class_list":{"0":"post-159570","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-antonio","8":"tag-2026-election","9":"tag-america","10":"tag-philip-cortez","11":"tag-san-antonio","12":"tag-sanantonio","13":"tag-texas","14":"tag-texas-house-district-117","15":"tag-top-story","16":"tag-tx","17":"tag-typedaily","18":"tag-united-states","19":"tag-united-states-of-america","20":"tag-unitedstates","21":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","22":"tag-us","23":"tag-usa","24":"tag-wc-500-750"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115057931319658712","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/159570","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=159570"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/159570\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/159571"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=159570"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=159570"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=159570"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}