In a highly polarized election season it is surprising and maybe heartening to see that voters of both parties in Harris County have shed some partisan loyalties to vote for candidates of another party than their own. A recent KUHF/KHOU Election Survey of Harris County Voters that I conducted shows that in the contests for Harris County Sheriff and District Attorney, a significant and non-trivial number of both Democratic and Republican voters are not choosing to vote for their respective party’s nominee.
In the Harris County Sheriff’s contest, Democratic incumbent Adrian Garcia is being challenged by Republican Louis Guthrie. As reported in the Houston Chronicle, Guthrie, a former Harris County sheriff’s officer, was fired from this position for “official oppression for cordoning off a Humble car wash with crime scene tape after his wife reported $17 taken from her car while it was being serviced. Many employees of the car wash were undocumented immigrants, who were detained and questioned at the scene during the unauthorized investigation that closed the facility for an hour.” According to the KUHF/KHOU Election Survey, approximately 14 percent of self- identified Republican voters support Garcia’s reelection. Garcia is supported by 51 percent of likely voters compared to only 32 percent of likely voters who reported supporting and/or voting for Guthrie. Another 15 percent of survey respondents reported supporting another candidate or were undecided.
In the election for Harris County District Attorney, Democrat Lloyd Oliver is facing Republican Nominee Mike Anderson. Oliver, a frequent candidate in Democratic and Republican primaries, was an unexpected primary victor this spring. His candidacy has been marred by allegations of judicial misconduct but more importantly, his behavior has led to an unsuccessful effort by the Harris County Democratic Party to remove his name from the ballot for praising the incumbent, District Attorney Republican Pat Lykos (who was defeated by Mike Anderson in the primary election). Oliver remains on the ballot but his support among self-identified Democratic voters has ebbed; 9.4 percent of Democrats in the KUHF/KHOU Election Survey reported supporting Mike Anderson for district attorney over the Democrat Oliver. This crossover of Democratic voters to the Anderson camp has him leading Oliver 41 percent to 36 percent, with 21 percent undecided or voting for another candidate.
Press coverage of these two races has exceeded the total coverage of most other countywide races combined. The fact that partisans of both parties are voting for candidates not aligned with their partisan affiliation is proof, albeit modest, that voters can discern between candidates on the basis of factors other than party affiliation. In the case of Oliver and Guthrie, their personal histories are well documented in the media and have proven sufficiently important and repellent for members of their party to reject their respective candidacies.
Robert Stein, Ph.D., is the fellow in urban politics at the James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy. He is also Rice University’s Lena Gohlman Fox Professor of Political Science and a nationally recognized political analyst and expert on elections.