By Patrick Svitek
First in The Blast: The campaign finance group End Citizens United is backing Democrat MJ Hegar to challenge U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, giving her a second national endorsement as she faces a potentially competitive primary.
“MJ Hegar knows that when politicians work for corporate special interests, the needs of Texas families are ignored,” the group’s president, Tiffany Muller, said in a statement. “By rejecting corporate PAC money, MJ is proving to Texans that she’ll step up and be the leader that Senator Cornyn isn’t — a leader who will buck the Washington establishment and fight for those with pre-existing health conditions and lower the cost of healthcare and prescription drugs.”
End Citizens United previously endorsed Hegar, a former Air Force helicopter pilot, in the 2018 primary runoff to challenge U.S. Rep. John Carter, R-Round Rock. Hegar easily won the runoff and then came within 3 percentage points of Carter in his traditionally Republican district.
This time, the group’s endorsement comes a month into Hegar’s candidacy and as other Democrats eye the primary, including Chris Bell, the former Houston congressman and gubernatorial nominee; Amanda Edwards, a member of the Houston City Council; and state Sen. Royce West of Dallas. In addition to Hegar, the Democrats already running include Michael Cooper, Sema Hernandez and Adrian Ocegueda.
The day after she announced her campaign last month, Hegar received the backing of VoteVets, which supports Democratic veterans running for Congress and had also backed her last year.