LONGVIEW, Texas — Jay Dean will be the Republican nominee for Texas House District 7 representative following Tuesday night's election results.
Dean came out with the majority vote in the three-way race between challengers businessman Joe McDaniel and caregiver Bonnie Walters. District 7 covers Gregg, Harrison, and Marion counties as of 2023. He will face Democratic challenger Marlena R. Cooper in November.
Dean has served in the role since 2017. Before becoming a representative, Dean was the mayor of Longview for a decade and on the Longview City Council for five years prior to that.
McDaniel's family has lived in Kilgore since 1962 to help establish Tri-State Fishing Tools. He was worked in and around the oil patch with several trucking, facility services, commercial construction, and his insurance businesses, according to his campaign website.
McDaniel and Walters both have said Dean hasn’t represented the values of District 7, according to the Longview News-Journal. Walters said her disappointment with Dean's performance as a representative is part of what caused her to run.
Dean was one of the 21 Republicans who voted in November against the creation of school vouchers. Both McDaniel and Walters expressed their support of school choice with Walters showing support for a voucher system and McDaniel being unsure if a voucher-like proposal would be the way, the News-Journal reported.