Meet Laura Moser and Lizzie Pannill Fletcher, the CD-7 Democratic primary runoff candidates

by Alana Rocha, Christina Shaman, Justin Dehn and Todd Wiseman, Texas Tribune


As election day nears, the Texas Democratic primary runoff between Laura Moser and Lizzie Pannill Fletcher continues to attract national attention from both the party and pundits.

Since 2001, Texas' 7th congressional district has been represented by U.S. Rep. John Culberson. This year, Democrats saw an opening to unseat the incumbent. They cited Hillary Clinton's 2016 presidential election vote total eclipsing now-President Donald Trump's tally in the Houston-area district, though Trump won Texas and the presidency.

Fletcher and Moser finished first and second, respectively, in the March 6 primary, in a field of seven Democrats. Fletcher, a business attorney and community activist, won about 1,650 more votes than Moser. Moser is a Houston journalist behind "Daily Action," a text message service launched in the weeks after Trump's election to connect people with their representatives in Congress.

Neither candidate has ever run for office before, but that didn't stop the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee – the group tasked with electing Democrats to the U.S. House – from posting opposition research on Moser before the primary. Some Democrats locally and nationally worry that Moser is too liberal to unseat Culberson in the general election.

Read more: https://www.texastribune.org/2018/04/26/texas-congress-district-2018-election-laura-moser-lizzie-pannill-fletcher/