TYLER, Texas — House District 11 Rep. Travis Clardy is facing three challengers in the March Republican primary.
Greg Caldwell, Rachel Hale and Mark Williams are seeking the seat in the Texas House. No Democrat filed to run.
After redistricting eliminates state Rep. Chris Paddie’s seat, Panola County will be moved into House District 11.
The new House District 11, if redistricting maps survive a legal challenge, includes Rusk, Panola, Shelby, Sabine, Nacogdoches and Newton counties.
Travis Clardy
Clardy is an attorney from Nacogdoches who was first elected to the Texas House in 2012. He describes himself as a lifelong Republican.
Shortly after the new voting maps were approved in the Legislature, Clardy announced on his Facebook page that he would be running for re-election. Clardy said he wanted to continue working on a number of issues that are important to East Texas: the educational system, teachers, retired teachers, roads, transportation, health care, the border, protecting life and standing up for Constitutional rights.
Greg Caldwell
Caldwell is an Appleby businessman who owns Caldwell Construction and Caldwell Earthworks. In announcing his campaign, Caldwell said he looks forward to bringing his business acumen and common sense fiscal conservatism to Austin.
“As a conservative business man, I look forward to helping return Texas to the conservative principles and values of its founding. The constant slide away from Christian principles is endangering our children’s futures and must be corrected to ensure that Texas continues to lead the nation forward.”
Rachel Hale
Hale is a Henderson businesswoman who co-owns Boatcycle with her husband, Kirk, and father-in-law, Ken. In her announcement, Hale said Texas needs to downsize the role and authority of government as a whole.
“We’re in a Texas where taxpayers get stuck footing the bill for lobbyists, property taxes are pricing Texans out of their homes, while the government forces us to wear masks and get vaccines. Who would not be concerned? I’m running to lead on these issues and so many more issues important to East Texas conservatives.”
Mark Williams
Williams is a Clayton businessman and rancher who unsuccessfully ran against Paddie in 2020. In his previous run for the Texas House, Williams said no one who was running really represented the people of East Texas.
“East Texas has economic problems right now for various reasons, and we need somebody that wants to represent us, somebody’s that not trying to reach a state office, and that’s a problem because we’re not like the I-35 Corridor,” Williams said. “We’ve got to have somebody that wants to represent us, because East Texas is different.”
Read more from our newspaper partners, and a breakdown of the candidates in its entirety in the Longview News-Journal.
