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In communities across Texas that are increasingly competitive between the two major parties, down-ballot Republican candidates face an unusual challenge this year.

Winning and losing presidential candidates such as George W. Bush, Mitt Romney and John McCain have long helped, or at least had a negligible impact on, other Republican candidates, such as those running for the state Legislature. Legislative candidates win or lose on their own, but its always a plus to have a candidate atop the ticket with strong appeal to Republicans and persuadable independents.

Thats not the case this year. Republican legislative candidates are facing headwinds instead of riding coattails. In the most reliably Republican communities, especially in rural parts of the state, Republicans are likely to keep winning up and down the ballot. But in Texas and across the country, suburban and urban areas have moved away from the Republican Party over the last four years and these are the types of communities where Republican dominance in Texas was built.

Down-ballot candidates cannot control what happens in a national campaign but in priorities and temperament, they can distinguish themselves. Republicans can maintain an advantage in Texas by demonstrating a focus on local concerns and a commitment to solving the issues that keep their neighbors up at night.

Those issues begin with COVID-19, and they are plentiful: How will schools help students make up for months spent out of the classroom, and how can legislators continue to make the meaningful investments in public education included in 2019s House Bill 3 school finance legislation? How do we address the challenges to our mental health system that the pandemic and economic recession have made more acute? How can small businesses get back on their feet? And how can the Legislature, without making the states looming budget shortfall even worse, help approximately 659,000 Texans who, between February and May, were added to the ranks of Texans without health insurance?

2020 Voter Guide: A roadmap of the races, candidates and issues on the ballot

Republican candidates for the Legislature need to proactively address each of these worries. It would also be advisable to separate themselves from the tone and tenor of the national campaign. Republican candidates can advocate free-market, pro-business principles with more credibility and optimism than Washington offers. After all, many voters in Republican areas have moved away from the party because of doubts about this president more than doubts about the core tenets the party was built upon.

A Republican Texas congressman recently told a Politico correspondent: Its no secret that in the suburbs, and especially among women, theyre turned off by Donald Trump. Does this mean theyre turned off by Republicans? Does it mean theyre not center-right voters anymore? No, not necessarily. Not at all, actually.

Given the crises we are facing this year, voters should be looking for thoughtful, solutions-oriented candidates who are willing to build consensus and cross aisles when necessary, and govern responsibly for Texas. Its worth remembering that as of Mondays court ruling, this is the first year that Texans cannot just punch one ticket and automatically vote for every candidate in a party up and down the ballot. Voters will need to evaluate each race separately, all the way down a lengthy ballot.

Its never easy for a candidate to separate from the top of the ticket. But it can be done, and Republicans have to do it to save the partys majority in the Texas House. Down-ballot Republicans should embrace that opportunity, zero in on local concerns, and distinguish themselves from the national campaign.

Republican Joe Straus of San Antonio served as Speaker of the Texas House of Representatives from 2009 to 2019. He is chairman of Texas Forever Forward.

Link:
Straus: Election will reward Republicans who set their own tone - San Antonio Express-News