TEXAS POLITICAL CONSULTANTS

PRIMARY RUNOFF SCORECARD

Capitol Inside | Mike Hailey | June 8, 2018

Keats Norfleet | Most Valuable Campaign

When Corsicana conservative Thomas McNutt was assembling the most star-studded list of endorsements that any Republican has ever had for a primary election in the Lone Star State, runoff foe Cody Harris was putting his money on a name that might have conjured visions seafaring Scandinavian poet in the minds of the voters in House District 8.

But Harris had tapped Austin-based strategist Keats Norfleet to be his campaign's general consultant at the recommendation of fellow Palestine native Todd Staples - the former state agriculture commissioner who'd been based in Anderson County as a Texas House and Senate member for a dozen years before his first winning statewide bid in 2006. The hiring decision paid off when Harris walloped McNutt in overtime in May with 57 percent of the vote in an open race for the lower chamber that Speaker Joe Straus haters had viewed as a lock at the outset in a northeast Texas district where McNutt had almost knocked off one of the House leader's most powerful lieutenants just two years ago.

Norfleet is a veteran political professional who'd been an advisor to Republicans like Kay Bailey Hutchison when she'd represented Texas in the U.S. Senate. A former high-ranking member of the Eppstein Group - the premier GOP consulting shop here before the tea party insurgence here - Norfleet had entered 2018 on a roll after helping elect an entire new city council with its first female majority in his hometown of Amarillo the previous year. While Norfleet would be advising some incumbent state lawmakers and House hopefuls from urban areas this year in various parts of the state, he understands the electoral mindset in places outside the state's major cities as a Panhandle product who'd been major consultant to East Texans like U.S. Rep. Louie Gohmert of Tyler and Staples. 

So Norfleet signed on with the Harris campaign despite the steep odds that it appeared to be facing amid the belief that a homegrown candidate could win as an underdog who'd be outspent in a swath of the state where the GOP voters are as independent as they are conservative and rarely toe the tea party line. Norfleet realized from the start that he would need the best help he could get - so he enlisted the do-it-all firm Murphy Nasica for a ground game operation that would help level the playing field considerably in a duel with an eventual OT foe who had substantial advantages in money and marquee support on the hard right from outside the four-county district. Norfleet also knew that Harris would be sufficiently armed for a fight with a foe who'd amass a seven-digit war chest - thanks to substantial infusions from his candidate's professional peers in the Texas Association of Realtors and the big-spending pro-Straus establishment Associated Republicans of Texas PAC. Norfleet also understood the need to get maximum bang for the big bucks that Harris would have as one of five candidates on the speaker team slate in the open House races that had the potential to reshape the state's political future.

But there had been no way to predict how long and glittering McNutt's supporter list would be in round two with endorsements that the Empower Texans candidate ended up securing from Governor Greg Abbott, U.S. Senator Ted Cruz, Energy Secretary Rick Perry, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and current Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller. McNutt even had the senator's father, Rafael Cruz, delivering a sermon on his behalf at a church in the district before the runoff election last month. McNutt's camp made it a point not to mention that President Donald Trump had tried to tie the elder Cruz to the Kennedy assassination when he'd been doing battle with his son in the White House race in 2016. But conservatives who supported McNutt sought to capitalize on disparaging remarks that Harris had fired at Trump during his campaign for president. When the mudslinging reached a fever pitch - however - Norfleet proved to be the ideal messenger for the calm and reassuring stance that the Harris campaign sought to convey on how the candidate has been pleased with the Trump agenda and had simply been a Cruz loyalist when the Texan was still in the race two years ago. 

The House leadership team's critics had decided to bring the biggest guns possible to HD 8 after Harris caught conservatives by surprise when he led his eventual runoff foe by 5 points in the March election that they'd been hoping McNutt would win outright. The sense of urgency on the hard right intensified when the candidate who'd been eliminated with less than 15 percent of the first-round vote endorsed Harris without haste in OT. But Norfleet didn't see McNutt's A-list endorsement parade as cause for panic because he understood the immeasurable value that the Texas Farm Bureau's vigorous support for Harris and the positive grassroots impact that educators would have on the race amid their anger over the conservatives' portrayal of them as radical liberal extremists. 

The hardliners who'd attempted for years to oust Straus from the leadership post may not have seen the last of Norfleet as most Texas Republicans shift their sights to the Democrats they'll be dueling this fall. The strategist who helped paved the way for a commanding Harris victory in May has been enlisted by a political action committee that was conceived early this year with $50,000 from GOP State Rep. John Zerwas of Richmond and $25,000 apiece from Houston beer distributor John Nau and San Antonio Spurs CEO Julianna Holt. The Texans for a Stronger Economy - whether by coincidence or design - was born less than three months after Zerwas officially entered the race to replace Straus in the speaker's office as a candidate who'd be expected to rely on a bipartisan coalition like the one the outgoing incumbent used to win the gavel almost 10 years ago. 

CREAM OF THE CROP
Most Valuable Campaign

Keats Norfleet