8-term Democrat Reyes "returned to Washington after being denied even a runoff despite an endorsement from President Barack Obama and a campaign stop from former President Bill Clinton."
5/30/12, "Democrat keeps low profile after ousting Reyes," AP, Houston Chronicle, Llorca, Weber
"Many entrenched members of the Texas congressional delegation overcame reshuffled political boundaries to win their primaries, but those new maps had nothing to do with how a guitar-playing, twice-arrested former city councilman who advocates legalizing marijuana ousted a powerful Democrat in a doozy of an election-night stunner.
Beto O'Rourke kept a low profile Wednesday after defeating U.S. Rep. Silvestre Reyes in the El Paso district. The former House Intelligence chairman, meanwhile, returned to Washington after being denied even a runoff despite an endorsement from President Barack Obama and a campaign stop from former President Bill Clinton.
On Wednesday afternoon, Reyes released a statement congratulating O'Rourke on the victory and pledging to work with him to ensure a smooth transition....
Reyes, 67, was the only congressional incumbent in Texas to lose in the primary....
O'Rourke is unlikely to face much of a threat from the GOP nominee in the heavily Democratic district this November....
Reyes' defeat assures that Texas will lose a member of its Hispanic delegation. Texas was awarded four new U.S. House seats because of a population surge the last decade driven by Hispanics, whose numbers grew by 2.8 million in the last decade — second only to California.
Texas, however, hasn't elected more than six Hispanics to Congress since 1997. The majority of the voting-age population in two of the new districts is Hispanic, but the only Hispanic candidate remaining in those races is Domingo Garcia, who faces a runoff with state House Rep. Mark Veasey in newly created 33rd Congressional District."...via Free Republic
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