Ex-MLB star heavy favorite in primary to succeed longtime GOP thorn in Trump's side
Former MLB player Mark Teixeira is heavy favorite in GOP primary to succeed Chip Roy in Congress
WASHINGTON — In his first-ever run for elected office, former Major League Baseball player Mark Teixeira is overpowering the field of a dozen Republicans competing to replace Rep. Chip Roy in Congress, pumping millions of his personal wealth into his campaign and locking up key endorsements, including a recent nod from President Donald Trump.
Roy, R-Austin, is running for Texas attorney general this year, leaving Texas’ 21st Congressional District up for grabs. The seat, which includes parts of San Antonio and several ruby red Hill Country counties, would have gone for Trump by nearly 22 points in 2024 under its new boundaries — meaning the Republican primary will likely decide the next representative.
Teixeira, a former Texas Rangers and New York Yankees first baseman, has raised more cash than any other candidate, loaning $2.5 million of his own money to his campaign and pulling in another $545,000 from donors. Aside from Trump, he is endorsed by Gov. Greg Abbott — whose push for private school vouchers Teixeira recently supported — and nine of the 25 Republicans from Texas’ congressional delegation. The sheer number of candidates increases the chances of the March 3 primary going to a runoff, which happens when no candidate receives a majority of the votes. But Jon Taylor, political science and geography department chair at the University of Texas at San Antonio, said Teixeira’s endorsements and ability to blanket the district in ads give him a major leg up.
“It seems like it's a slam dunk that he'll end up winning the Republican nomination,” Taylor said. “But with [11 other] primary candidates, getting 1 or 2% of the vote here, or 4 or 5% of the vote here, it's possible that … there's just enough people in the primary with enough votes to force a primary runoff.”
Among the other candidates are Daniel Betts, an Austin-based defense attorney endorsed by the San Antonio Express-News; former Bexar County Republican Party vice chair Kyle Sinclair; Trey Trainor, former chair of the Federal Election Commission and prominent GOP lawyer; and former Kendall County GOP chairman Mike Wheeler. Betts and Wheeler, along with Navy veteran Jason Cahill and engineer Paul Rojas, are the only candidates aside from Teixeira who have raised at least $100,000 for their campaigns.
Teixeira’s rivals have painted him as a carpetbagger and cast doubt on the authenticity of his vow to “fight for the conservative principles that make Texas and America great,” as Teixeira said in a TV ad recently aired in the district.
Drafted by the Rangers in 2001, Teixeira spent his first five seasons in Arlington. He retired after the 2016 season, finishing his career with an eight-year run on the Yankees, and moved back to Texas in 2021, according to his campaign website. He now lives in Bee Cave, a small town west of Austin.
At a January debate in San Antonio, volunteers opposing Teixeira passed out flyers highlighting comments he made a decade ago about athletes needing to be outspoken about climate change, according to the San Antonio Report. Teixeira made those comments as a board member on the Emerald Corridor Foundation, an Atlanta-based environmental nonprofit working to restore greenspace and waterways.
But in his congressional campaign, Teixeira has positioned himself as a staunch conservative candidate aligning with the Trump administration on border security, cuts to government spending and gun rights. After an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent fatally shot Minneapolis resident Renee Good last month, Teixeira wrote on X, “I stand with ICE.”
While Teixeira is currently the frontrunner, there are several candidates who have a shot at competing against him if the race goes to a runoff, said Mark Jones, a political science professor at Rice University.
“It's going to be a race where we're going to see Teixeira finish well ahead of the pack, and then it'll be whichever of those other candidates is able to do well in the home stretch,” Jones said.
About a month after Teixeira launched his campaign, Trainor, the former FEC chair, announced his bid for the seat.
Trainor has served as general counsel to the Texas Secretary of State’s Office and the Republican Party of Texas and as a lawyer for former Gov. Rick Perry’s 2012 presidential campaign. As a legislative aide, he worked on Texas’ 2003 congressional redistricting effort that drew several Democrats out of their seats.
Trump’s endorsement of Teixeira was a blow for Trainor, who, as general counsel for the platform committee at the 2016 Republican National Convention, helped quell an anti-Trump uprising on the floor. Trump later appointed him to serve on the FEC. Trainor has pledged to “stand shoulder-to-shoulder with Trump” in Washington if elected.
Wheeler, the former Kendall County GOP chairman, is another one of the handful of candidates with political experience. He currently serves on the State Republican Executive Committee — the Texas GOP’s governing board — and previously worked in global finance, which led to his Trump appointment as a senior advisor to the Small Business Administration in 2024.
Sinclair, the former Bexar County GOP vice chair, previously ran for Congress in the neighboring 20th Congressional District. He secured the Republican nomination in 2022 before losing to Democratic Rep. Joaquin Castro in the solidly blue district.
Betts is running on what he describes as an evidence-based conservative platform. A former chemist, he says on his campaign website that combating fentanyl is one of his top priorities, including designating Mexican drug cartels as terrorist organizations and expanding access to addiction treatment. He unsuccessfully ran for Travis County district attorney in 2024, losing by a wide margin in the heavily Democratic county.
Cahill, a Navy veteran and oil and gas businessman, has put in $250,000 to his campaign. He’s never held elected office and is running on a platform similar to Teixeira’s, describing himself as a political outsider akin to Trump.
Other candidates in the race include Jacques Dubose, a Navy veteran and former Boerne Chamber of Commerce chair; Marine Corps veteran Zeke Enriquez; Weston Martinez, who has represented Jan. 6 clients as an arbitrator; Heather Tessmer, an attorney; and Peggy Wardlaw, a petroleum engineer.
Disclosure: Rice University and University of Texas at San Antonio have been financial supporters of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune's journalism. Find a complete list of them here.
This article first appeared on The Texas Tribune.