Before the 2018 midterms, Texas Democrats targeted a long list of state House Republicans in urban and suburban seats that were won—or nearly won—by Hillary Clinton in 2016. But House District 28 in suburban Houston was nowhere near the top of that list; Donald Trump had handily won the district by 10 percentage points.
The longtime incumbent, John Zerwas, was an influential and well-respected Republican who chaired the House appropriations committee. He hadn’t faced a Democratic challenger since 2010, when he won more than 70 percent of the vote. So even as Democrats ousted a dozen sitting House Republicans in the 2018 midterms, including some in nearby suburban districts, Zerwas withstood the blue wave and beat his Democratic opponent by 8 percentage points.
