Over the last eight years, Richardson Area Democrats has weighed in on an increasing number of races, and with the increase, the endorsement process has progressed from the original recruited slate of candidates for City Council, to a community poll for a little wider pool of candidates, to a full candidate questionnaire that is assessed by the Board that included statewide races, to what we have this year.

This year we decided to endorse in every contested race on the March primary ballot, which includes races from Federal (Senate & Congress), through statewide races for Governor, AG, Comptroller, etc., down through ALL the contested judicial races and finally including the local constable & clerks.

We sent out a questionnaire to each candidate in contested primaries (around 80 candidates) and received 64 responses. There are 10 questions on the questionnaire, and their answers were almost all much longer than a yes or no. We have an endorsement team that includes about 15 of the current and former RAD Board members who used a matrix we developed to grade the candidates’ answers. Then we met to go over the results, compare the scores in each race with input from personal interactions and exposure to the candidates, as well as getting input from lawyers and judges who know more than we do about the judicial candidates. In this cycle alone, we have cumulatively spent over 175 hours on these endorsements. 

This is a different process than any other club that we are aware of. We believe there’s value in that difference. We encourage our members to do their own research, take a look at other clubs’ endorsements, and come up with their best choices for each of these races. This is just one tool and, imperfect as it may be, we are proud to present the candidates who have earned our support and endorsement.