Michael Cloud, new GOP congressman, faces Democrat Eric Holguin in 27th District

Since he was elected on June 30 to finish out the term of a disgraced former congressman, U.S. Rep. Michael Cloud, R-Victoria, has busily done the sorts of things a congressman does to establish incumbency.

In July, he hired staff and reopened offices in the 27th Congressional District, which stretches from the Coastal Bend to parts of Bastrop and Caldwell counties. In August, he addressed an energy conference in Corpus Christi. And, in September, he announced that the Victoria school district had received over $1 million in reimbursements from the Federal Emergency Management Agency to cover damage from Hurricane Harvey.

The flurry of activity comes as Cloud faces a general-election challenge from Democrat Eric Holguin, 31, a former official in the community affairs division of the New York City comptroller’s office who says he returned to his native South Texas after hearing the call to run for office in President Barack Obama’s valedictory speech.

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There’s a sign that outside spenders don’t see the general election race as in contention: Conservative groups shelled out more than $755,000 in support of Cloud’s campaign in the lead-up to Cloud’s victory in a May Republican primary runoff over Bech Bruun, a former chairman of the Texas Water Development Board, but no outside money has been spent in favor of Cloud or Holguin since then, according to Federal Election Commission information.

Read more: https://www.statesman.com/news/20181008/michael-cloud-new-gop-congressman-faces-democrat-eric-holguin-in-27th-district