THE COASTAL BEND MAGAZINE • Late Summer 2018 51 TheCoastalBend.com Coastal Bend Community ON JUNE 30, a special election was held to replace Rep. Blake Farenthold for the Texas District 27 seat in the U.S. House of Representatives. As we all know, Farenthold resigned earlier this year amid the controversy surrounding a 2014 sex- ual harassment claim that was settled with an $84,000 payment of taxpayer funds. Abandoned by Speaker of the House Paul Ryan (R-OH) and his colleagues in the House, Farenthold saw no way but out. Victoria County Republican Party Chairman Michael Cloud, a marketing and communications consultant, filed to challenge Far- enthold in the Republican primary prior to his resignation, citing the need for ethical representation in Washington. Cloud came in second in a GOP primary field of six candidates, losing to Bech Bruun by a thousand votes, but sending the nomination to a runoff on May 24. In what can only be considered a shocking upset, Cloud defeated Bruun in the runoff by 22%, and was set to face Democrat Eric Hoguin in the June 30 special election. A 30-year-old Coastal Bend native, Holguin is the son of a high school football coach and a nurse, and his grandfather served as Justice of the Peace in Jim Hogg County. He graduated from Texas A&M University Corpus Christi, after which he worked for a congresswoman from New York state and the New York City Comptroller. Holguin’s path to the Democratic nomination mirrored Cloud’s. He placed sec- ond to Roy Barrera in the primary (in a field of four), but then soundly defeated Bar- rera in the runoff—but this is where the similarity ends. Cloud defeated Holguin by 22% in the special election for the remainder of Farenthold’s term in a crowded field that included other candidates who had lost in the primary process. A total of 87% of ballots went to either Cloud or Holguin, falling in line with the primary results, but total turnout amounted to less than 37,000 voters. Michael Cloud was sworn in as District 27 Representative on July 10 and has since moved swiftly to hire staff and take over offices once occupied by Farenthold. The seat held by Democrat Solomon P. Ortiz, Sr., for 28 years since its creation in 1982, was won by Republican Farenthold in the Tea Party wave of 2010 and is now considered a “safe” GOP seat. District 27 was ruled unconstitutional by a federal judge last year in one of the country’s most visible gerrymandering lawsuits, but that ruling was reversed by the U.S. Supreme Court. To the credit of both Rep. Cloud and challenger Holguin, they made time for one-on-one interviews for this story, and for our readers. We interviewed Holguin by phone for over 40 minutes, and Rep. Cloud in person, in his new Corpus Christi office, for over 20 minutes. While we did not have the chance to ask each and every question you might have us ask, we chose a few that involve issues most relative to our neck of the woods as well as to the national tone. And while the interviews were friendly and cordial, we pressed both men when their answers seemed unclear and did our best to limit their efforts at political fence riding, an art at which both nominees were strikingly practiced. CongressmanMichaelCloud,U.S.HouseofRepresentatives,TexasDistrict27 The Coastal Bend Magazine: Please make the case for Coastal Bend voters to reelect you in November. Rep. Cloud: I ran for congress because I felt we needed effective representation in government, we are a nation of the people, by the people, for the people and in too many ways our government doesn’t serve those purposes. Really, it’s about getting our nation back to the constitutional principals that it is founded on and at the same time representing our district well—and bringing a ser- vant’s heart to representation of our district. Former Rep. Farenthold, who resigned in April, told KRIS-TV news, “I’m going to hand a check over this week to probably Speaker [Paul] Ryan or somebody to say, ‘Look, here’s the amount of my settlement. Give it back to the taxpayers.” But the money has not been returned four months later, while over $100,000 remaining in his campaign account has been spent on legal fees. In May, the month after his resignation, Faren- thold took a lobbying job for the Port of Port Lavaca, a move that prompted a lawsuit by The Victoria Advocate newspaper, published by Cloud ally Dan Easton, against Farenthold and the Calhoun Port Authority for allegedly violating the Texas Open Meetings Act. In April, Gov. Greg Abbott sent a letter to Farenthold asking him to take the $84,000 and pay it to the counties that had to foot the bill for the special election. His spokesperson was quoted as saying, “it’s not surprising that [Farenthold’s] last act would be to stick taxpayers with the bill at the worst possible time.” Do you believe that former Congressman Farenthold should repay the $84,000 in taxpayer funds that were paid to settle the sexual harassment claim against him? I think everybody’s ready to move past Farenthold. [Constituents] should know that I’m going to do my best to run an office with the highest ethics and integrity, and it’s very important that we return integrity to government in general. So that those situations don’t arise in the future? Yeah. Rep. Cloud has been asked this question about whether Farenthold should repay the settlement money, but he has consistently refused to answer. Left: Rep. Michael Cloud and family posing with Speaker of the House Paul Ryan on July 10. Right: Democrat Eric Holguin at a campaign rally before the special election.