Johnny Garcia, a sheriff’s deputy and the preferred candidate of Democratic leaders in Washington, prevailed on Tuesday in a primary runoff for a South Texas House seat, The Associated Press declared.
Mr. Garcia defeated a progressive activist whose calls to imprison “Zionists” brought condemnation from many in her party.
Mr. Garcia’s victory is likely to fuel Democratic hopes of holding onto the 35th Congressional District even after Republicans in the Texas Legislature redrew it last year to favor a Republican.
The district includes parts of San Antonio along with several suburban and rural counties. The majority of the population is Hispanic and a third is white.
Mr. Garcia had the backing of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, the House Democrats’ campaign arm. But he came in second after the initial round of voting in March to a sex therapist, Maureen Galindo, who garnered widespread attention for her critical comments about Israel and its supporters.
In the final days before the runoff vote, Democrats in Washington, including Representative Hakeem Jeffries of New York, the minority leader, accused Republicans of meddling in the race after a new super PAC with ties to Republicans, called Lead Left, began paying for mailers supporting her and attacking Mr. Garcia.
Mr. Jeffries called Ms. Galindo’s rhetoric “antisemitic” and “dangerous.” Several Texas Democrats, including James Talarico, the party’s nominee for U.S. Senate, began distancing themselves from her after she said this month that she would like to turn an immigration detention center into “a prison for American Zionists.”
While the issue of Israel and its actions in Gaza have divided Democrats, Ms. Galindo’s rhetoric united the party. The moderate Blue Dog PAC opposed her, as did Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the outspoken New York progressive, who described Ms. Galindo’s comments as “bigoted garbage” and urged voters in the Texas district to support Mr. Garcia.
Democrats face an uphill battle in the general election even with Mr. Garcia, a first-time candidate whose campaign stressed middle-of-the-road policies on health care, jobs and public safety.
But the party has hoped that the voting trends that led Republicans to redraw the district may no longer hold in 2026, as polls show a sharp decline in President Trump’s approval ratings, especially among Hispanic voters, amid frustration with high prices.
J. David Goodman is the Texas bureau chief for The Times, based in Houston.
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