Buoyed by record in 11 years of public office and a little help from Senator Ted Cruz, 2nd straight Golden Domer to represent the 4th

Saturday afternoon, 145 (out of 153) Republican precinct and county chairs overwhelmingly elected state Senator Pat Fallon, 52, to replace former Congressman, now Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe on the November ballot as the Republican nominee for the 4th congressional district of Texas.

It wasn’t even close. Fallon won a comfortable majority of the 145 votes of the Congressional District Executive Committee (CDEC) at a meeting in Sulphur Springs, TX, over 11 other candidates nominated from the floor. The secret ballot among elected county and precinct chairs operating under one-person, one-vote was:

• State Senator Pat Fallon of Prosper……………………82 (56%)
• Former Ratcliffe Chief of Staff Jason Ross……………34
• Atlanta Mayor Travis Ransom…………………………..16
• Congressional Chief of Staff Aaron Harris………………5

The other eight candidates received either 2 votes, 1 vote or 0 votes from the CDEC members.

And to demonstrate how much Texas has changed even among Republicans in one of the most conservative districts in Texas, and indeed, the nation:

• Fallon is the 3rd out-of-district or recently-moved-into-district (“carpetbagger”) candidate to win the Republican nomination to a House seat in 2020. Fallon bought a home this summer in Grayson County from his Denton County (out-of-district) base, where he plans to move to by next year. The other two are:
  • Former Congressman Jeff Sessions (R, TX-32) after losing his Dallas seat in 2018, won the primary runoff for the open TX-17 seat.
  • Retired Rear Admiral Ronny Jackson (R, TX-13), who won his primary runoff last month.
• Fallon is the 2nd straight graduate of the University of Notre Dame to represent the TX-04, behind John Ratcliffe. Fallon played football at Notre Dame his junior and senior year, including backup wide receiver on the 1988 national championship team (him and former IL-14 candidate Ted Gradel did not play together, as the 1987 season Fallon was ineligible since he transferred from the University of Massachusetts)
• Fallon is not a native Texan, born and raised in Massachusetts
• Fallon moved to Texas as a member of the United States Air Force based at Sheppard Air Force Base near Wichita Falls and settled in north Dallas exurbs after leaving the service by the mid 1990s.
• Fallon used a more traditional way to build his resume’ for Congress in elective public office including
  • One 3-year term on the Frisco city council (2009-2012)
  • Three terms as state representative (2013-2019)
  • After successfully primarying a 17-year incumbent in 2018, currently serves in state senate (2019-2020)

Several of Fallon’s rival candidates, during their 3-minute speeches to the CDEC after being nominated from the floor, made veiled, and not-so-veiled references to the carpetbagger/out-of-district residency of Fallon and other candidates.

Additionally, some of the younger Millennials in the district pushed Millennial Aaron Harris, who successfully started a business specializing in tracking down and aiding law enforcement to prosecute voter fraud, reminiscent of the supporters of Catalina Lauf in IL-14. Fallon, at 52 easily won and the 2nd and 3rd place candidates are well into their 40s.

Those tactics, or some of the other candidates having impressive records in public service in their own right like Atlanta Mayor Travis Ransom, Rockwall Mayor Jim Pruitt and Rockwall City Council Member Trace Johannesen could not stop Fallon’s momentum.

Fallon made a clear point he’s undefeated in over 7 contested elections, and given the TX-04 demographics, while not being a concern for CDEC members, were impressed how Fallon earned his record through winning contested elections, particularly when primarying a sitting incumbent and ousting him with over 40 percentage point victory.

His voting record on issues important to conservatives is shared in the video from his campaign at the end of the article, many of these points made during his speech on Saturday. Clearly, with the support Fallon had from other conservative leaders, a “career politician” argument would not work against Fallon, either.

A month ago and at the same time announcing IL-06 Republican nominee Jeanne Ives would be one of the “20 for 20” nominees being backed financially by U.S. Senator Ted Cruz, Pat Fallon was formally endorsed by Cruz for the TX-04 nomination. Cruz returned to Sulphur Springs, accompanied by local state legislators showing support for Fallon:

According to news reports, Cruz met with up to 80 CDEC members on Saturday morning and midday, pushing for Fallon to be elected. As the CDEC meeting was beginning shortly after 1PM CDT, Fallon predicted to a live stream broadcaster “Bunker” Bob Steinhagen he was going to win on the first ballot.

Like Babe Ruth’s “called-shot” home run at Wrigley Field in the 1932 World Series, Fallon made no idle boast.

Video with Fallon discussing his campaign shot in early July: