"The Texas Railroad Commission election was widely considered the most important down-ballot climate race of 2020."
"Jim Wright, a hardcore climate change denier and owner of an oil-field services company, is projected to win the race to be Texas’ next energy regulator, preserving the Republicans’ quarter-century hold on the Texas Railroad Commission and defeating a better-funded Democrat.
The race for the open slot on the three-seat commission ― which, despite its name, oversees the Lone Star State’s vast oil, gas and mining industries ― had been widely seen as Democrats’ best chance to win a statewide election there in nearly three decades.
Earlier this year, Wright defeated Ryan Sitton, the better-funded and respected Republican incumbent, in a surprise upset during the GOP primary. A relative unknown facing fines from the very commission he’ll now join ― as well as lawsuits accusing him of fraud ― Wright seemed like a prime target for Democratic challenger Chrysta Castañeda, an engineer and energy attorney who ran on curbing pollution that even big oil and gas giants support regulating."
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