congress, what do you think?’” Congressman Cloud began when we met with him in early June. “And at the time, we thought it would be a couple of months, and a primary, and then we’d have a little bit of a break before the fall to November march of a campaign.” But it was a little more complex than that. In fact, the soon-to-be Congressman quickly found himself caught up in a series of events and races that is likely unprecedented in Texas politics. Cloud decided to run for the GOP nomination in the March 25, 2018 primary, a race in which he finished a close second to Bech Bruun. But neither man received the needed 50% of the vote, so a runoff was scheduled to take place on May 22. But shortly after the primary, on April 6, Farenthold announced that he would resign his office immediately. As a result of that sudden change, Governor Greg Abbott announced on April 25 that a special election would be held on June 30 to determine his successor. Thus, Michael Cloud found himself involved in two races simultaneously: His runoff with Bruun to decide who the party’s nominee would be for the November general election and the special election to determine who would serve out the rest of Farenthold’s term. You seriously could never make this stuff up. Cloud was able to prevail over Bruun by a wide margin in the May 22 runoff election, which meant he now had to begin preparing for and planning his general election campaign while at the same time
engaging in the special election contest. Cloud ended up winning that special election over three other opponents without a runoff, pulling in over 60% of the vote. That victory meant that he was immediately off to Washington. As a result, “We didn’t have that normal November to January buildup time, that little chance to catch your breath, get staffed, doing all of those kinds of things. It definitely at times felt like the campaign would never end, and immediately you are going to Washington to serve while you’re building your staff.”
JULY/AUGUST 2019 SHALE MAGAZINE
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