It's primary time in Texas. First, a brief look at the US Senate. Incumbent Senator John Cornyn (R) is being challenged by impeached and indicted, but never convicted, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R). Maybe not surprisingly, polls show GOP voters prefer Paxton. The Democrats have two candidates who are running against each other (James Talarico and Jasmine Crockett). Crockett found fame attacking Trump. Talarico is attacking Crockett. Dems can be their own worst enemies.
Another race to watch is the US Congressional race for Texas District 32, which includes Richardson, although it's weighted to give heavily Republican east Texas a majority. In the Democratic primary is current Richardson City Council member Dan Barrios ("We recommend Barrios...who is running a campaign centered on kitchen-table issues, such as the rising cost of living, housing affordability and opportunities for small businesses." — The Dallas Morning News). Running against him is Anthony Bridges ("Donald Trump and Chuck Schumer are going to HATE me as much as we hate them and their billionaire buddies." — Bridges's campaign website) All I've said before about that race is the effect of Barrios's candidacy on the City Council of Richardson (not their shining hour).
On the Republican side, I have a lot more to say. The pack is circling the seat that was opened up by redistricting. Julie Johnson, the incumbent, was drawn out of her own district.
First, the money race. Here's where campaign finance stood as of December 31, 2025, which in campaign time is an eon ago. Still, it gives you some idea where the big money is going. Data is from campaign finance reports as of December 31, 2025.
| Candidate | Raised | Spent | Cash on Hand |
|---|---|---|---|
| Paul Bondar (R) | $1,905,588 | $296,628 | $1,608,959 |
| Ryan Binkley (R) | $1,258,716 | $618,052 | $640,664 |
| Jace Yarbrough (R) | $325,183 | $2,290 | $322,892 |
| Darrell Day (R) | $89,811 | $37,977 | $141,167 |
| Monty Montanez (R) | $39,224 | $39,966 | $0 |
| Eric Niehaus (R) | $35,269 | $35,269 | $0 |
| Aimee Carrasco (R) | $34,575 | $33,241 | $1,333 |
| Abteen Vaziri (R) | $15,225 | $6,888 | $8,336 |
| James Ussery (R) | $0 | $0 | $0 |
| Source: Federal Election Commission | |||
If money correlates strongly with success, the GOP race is between Bondar, Binkley, and Yarbrough.
But what about endorsements? Binkley has been stuffing my mailbox with flyers (seven and counting) showing a smiling Binkley standing next to a smiling Donald Trump. There's a reproduction of a handwritten note ("Ryan — Great Job!") above Donald Trump's signature. I'm sure Binkley would not mind if recipients think Trump endorsed Binkley.
But...on February 4, 2026, Trump endorsed Jace Yarbrough for TX-32. In the one and only flyer for Yarbrough in my mailbox, Yarbrough claims to have also been endorsed by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott. Binkley might have the lead in spending, but Yarbrough appears to have the better endorsements for a GOP primary race.
The other GOP candidate with big bucks is Paul Bondar. He says he accepts "No dark money." He also says he lives in Texas, but in 2024, Bondar ran to represent Oklahoma's 4th Congressional District. News fact checks (e.g., "A former Illinois businessman who recently voted in Texas is running for an Oklahoma congressional seat") questioned that. As for endorsements, I can't find any on his campaign website or in the only mailer we received from his campaign. That was a family Christmas card. Maybe implying a religious endorsement, the biggest?
That brings me to the fourth of nine candidates in the GOP race for TX 32. That's Richardson's own Darrell Day, who at the beginning of January was a distant fourth in money raising. He ran in 2024 also, where he was soundly beaten, 61% to 37%, by Julie Johnson (D). Republicans' reaction to that thumping was to redraw the district boundaries to make TX-32 a likely safe Republican seat in 2026. That's likely what attracted all all the Republicans, and money, into this race that they left to Julie Johnson in 2024.
If you want to look up non-partisan information about the nine GOP candidates, I might suggest you go to Vote411.org, the League of Women Voters website. But eight of the nine GOP candidates did not respond to the LWV's request for information. Kudos to Abteen Vaziri, the one who did.
The only thing to add to this race is that one of the candidates, Darrell Day, has appeared in the pages of The Wheel before. That was in 2010. I'll reproduce what was written about him then.
Bury My Heart at the Corner of Navaho and Mohawk
Oct. 24, 2010I've shied away from commenting on the issue of what to call that Richardson neighborhood with all the streets named Seminole, Chickasaw, Apache, etc. Should entry signs announce it as "Estates North" (the original name given by developers in the 1960s) or "The Reservation" (the unofficial name homeowners have been calling it ever since)?
After the jump, why I'm jumping into the fray.
Now that none other than The Dallas Morning News' esteemed metro columnist and Unfair Park punching bag Steve Blow has weighed in on the subject, I feel compelled to offer my two cents' worth as well. If the good folks in Sunnyvale are talking about it, why shouldn't I?
I'm with Steve Blow when he concludes, "A serious affront? Or a silly quibble? The bottom line is that it's not a terribly serious insult, but neither is it silly to question such things."
Blow reports that the Dallas-Fort Worth Native American Chamber of Commerce felt the issue important enough for that body to take a vote. That Chamber of Commerce discourages the name, Reservation.
On the other hand, Darrell Day, president of the Reservation Homeowners Association, believes the concern is silly. Blow quotes him as saying, "At some point this crosses into absurdity. What is an Indian reservation? It's simply land that was reserved for the American Indians."
And that's what brings me into the fray. I can't let ignorance by our civic leaders pass without comment. (OK, I can't let much of anything that goes on in Richardson pass without comment, but that's another matter.) I don't live in that neighborhood. I support the homeowners' right to put "Reservation" on their entry signs, even if they use my tax dollars to pay for them. But anyone who thinks that a reservation is "simply land that was reserved for the American Indians" is showing a naive lack of understanding of American history.
There are many good sources of information on the subject (Wikipedia among them, which Darrell Day told Steve Blow he uses). If you can take the time to read a book, I recommend you start with "Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee" by Dee Brown, a 1970 bestselling "history of Native Americans in the American West in the late nineteenth century, and their displacement and slaughter by the United States federal government" (that description comes from Wikipedia ;-). Read that book, Mr. Day, and see if you still describe the role of "reservations" in American history so blandly. Because, frankly, Mr. Day, your comments about this issue aren't helping your neighborhood's image.
Early voting runs from February 17-27. Election Day is March 3, 2026.
"In the GOP,
it's less a horse race and more
a sprint to pucker."
—h/t ChatGPT
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