{"id":270207,"date":"2025-10-01T21:45:12","date_gmt":"2025-10-01T21:45:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/270207\/"},"modified":"2025-10-01T21:45:12","modified_gmt":"2025-10-01T21:45:12","slug":"former-state-rep-leo-pacheco-seeks-comeback-but-as-a-republican","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/270207\/","title":{"rendered":"Former state Rep. Leo Pacheco seeks comeback, but as a Republican"},"content":{"rendered":"

Former Democratic state Rep. Leo Pacheco is trying to reclaim his old state House seat, but under the Republican banner.<\/p>\n

Pacheco once chaired the Bexar County Democratic Party in the 1990s, and even won Southside\u2019s state House District 118<\/a> by defeating an incumbent Democrat in the primary in 2018.<\/p>\n

After supporting a permitless carry gun law<\/a> in the Texas Legislature, however, he was censured by the local Democratic Party.<\/p>\n

Pacheco later resigned his state House seat<\/a> before the end of his second term to teach at San Antonio College \u2014 paving the way for Republicans to take the seat in a special election and ultimately hold what had been a longtime Democratic stronghold<\/a> in a general election the following November.<\/p>\n

Now incumbent state Rep. John Lujan (R-San Antonio) is<\/a> running for Congress instead of reelection, and Pacheco is among two party-switchers trying to keep the seat in GOP hands.<\/p>\n

Desi Martinez, who ran in a\u00a02021 special election<\/a> as a Democrat, is also trying his luck as a Republican this year<\/a> for the Texas House District 118<\/a>\u00a0seat.<\/p>\n

Pacheco filed a campaign treasurer\u2019s report this week, and told The Texan<\/a> he\u2019d joined the GOP.<\/p>\n

Reached by phone Wednesday, Pacheco said he left the Legislature in 2021 due to the low pay and high demands. Now 67, he\u2019s retired from teaching and has the time to commit.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen John Lujan made the announcement that he was going to run in the 35th [congressional district], my phone just blew up,\u201d he said. \u201cSupporters of mine were calling me, saying, \u2018Hey, we need you back.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

He said his switch to the GOP was recent, but that even as Democrats\u2019 party chair, he faced criticism for being a Blue Dog.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was welcomed with open arms by the Republican state representatives on the House floor \u2026 they helped me get some very important bills passed,\u201d he said. \u201cSince I\u2019m already on the conservative side, and I have many friends on that side of the fence, it makes sense for me to run as a Republican.\u201d<\/p>\n

Texas Republicans have put a lot of money into House District 118 over the past decade, and are prepared to do so again this election cycle.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Pacheco said he already has the support of the tort reform group Texans for Lawsuit Reform \u2014 one of the most prolific spenders on legislative races.\u00a0<\/p>\n

His political consultant is Mitchell Carney, the son of Gov. Greg Abbott\u2019s longtime chief political strategist Dave Carney, and the leader of a PAC <\/a>that spent big for Rolando Pablos in San Antonio\u2019s mayoral race this year.<\/p>\n

Democrat Kristian Carranza, who ran unsuccessfully against Lujan in 2024, is so far the only candidate seeking the Democratic nomination.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe only thing Leo Pacheco values is power \u2014 so much so that he joins the party cutting off health care to working people,\u201d Carranza said Wednesday. \u201cSan Antonio families will see through this.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former Democratic state Rep. Leo Pacheco is trying to reclaim his old state House seat, but under the…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":270208,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5133],"tags":[17032,5229,140472,7202,7203,358,76449,140473,109646,7453,3187,7815,67,586,132,5230,68,2969,11887],"class_list":{"0":"post-270207","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-leo-pacheco","11":"tag-san-antonio","12":"tag-sanantonio","13":"tag-texas","14":"tag-texas-democrats","15":"tag-texas-gop","16":"tag-texas-house-district-118","17":"tag-top-story","18":"tag-tx","19":"tag-typedaily","20":"tag-united-states","21":"tag-united-states-of-america","22":"tag-unitedstates","23":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","24":"tag-us","25":"tag-usa","26":"tag-wc-less-than-500"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115301104206150888","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/270207","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=270207"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/270207\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/270208"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=270207"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=270207"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=270207"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}