McCaul: 'Full steam ahead'

WASHINGTON — Is Michael McCaul running for reelection, being pushed into retiring or keeping an eye out for the next big job?

Depending on whom you talk to, all three possibilities could be true for the eight-term, 57-year-old Republican congressman from Austin.

McCaul represents a seat that sprawls from Lake Travis to the Houston suburbs that is being targeted by national Democratic operatives, one of six GOP-held seats in Texas that the national Democratic Party has labeled as ripe for takeover. Republicans representing three of those six districts announced their retirements over the past three weeks.

McCaul won by 4.3 percentage points to a lightly funded Democrat last year, after cruising to victory in previous elections. The close race was seen as a reflection of a district that is experiencing rapid demographic change, as well as the effect of Beto O'Rourke being at the top of the Democratic ticket.

“Any Republican who won by 5 points or less in 2018 is on a target list for Democrats,” said Larry Sabato, director of the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia. “That doesn't mean he'll lose, but when you're a powerful incumbent and came that close to losing, the opposition party is going to test you again.”

McCaul was chairman of the Homeland Security Committee for six years and is now the top-ranked Republican on the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

“In the House, if your district is at all competitive — and McCaul's is becoming more so — you're in a permanent campaign,” Sabato said. “That gets old for most politicians, so they look for ways to run statewide or take an appointive position.”

McCaul, who didn't put a premium on retail politics in previous campaigns, is pushing back against the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, which has opened an Austin office and is putting pressure on GOP incumbents.

“The choice before Congressman McCaul is to retire on his own with his reputation partially intact or endure a long and expensive 15 months of public vetting and watching his record get picked apart before the voters," said Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee spokesman Avery Jaffe.

Stepping up

McCaul tweeted this week that his campaign is “full steam ahead,” with a photo of him knocking on his 10,000th door and touting his fundraising of over $525,000 during the three months that ended June 30.

“I absolutely think he’s running for reelection,” said Bill Miller, an Austin consultant with both Democratic and Republican clients. “He’s an ambitious guy who knows how to get along.”

On Monday, McCaul is holding a roundtable discussion on human trafficking with local and federal stakeholders and officials in North Austin.

Also, during the August recess, he is planning a barbecue tasting tour of district eateries and a small-business roundtable, although his campaign office has not released any details.

“Michael McCaul won’t be bullied by the liberal hacks running the DCCC,” Evan Albertson, his campaign manager, told the American-Statesman. “McCaul has an effective, bipartisan record to run on, just had the best fundraising quarter of his career, and is building a strong grassroots campaign. ... No amount of bullying or whining will scare Michael McCaul out of this race.”

Passed over

McCaul was reportedly being considered as one of three candidates to be the director of national intelligence, but Trump announced Thursday that he was naming Joseph Maguire, director of the National Counterterrorism Center, as the acting director of national intelligence. The prestigious Cabinet post was offered a little over a week ago to U.S. Rep. John Ratcliffe, R-Heath, who withdrew over questions about his credentials.

McCaul has built a portfolio on his international relations expertise. “He has been looking for the exits for a while,” Rice University political science professor Mark Jones said. “Being in the minority in the U.S. House is not a lot of fun.”

He had angled for another post — homeland security secretary — twice, first when President Donald Trump was elected and again in July 2017, but was rebuffed by White House officials who weren’t sure he was aligned closely enough with Trump's immigration policies.

With no top-tier administration openings available at the moment, McCaul looks like he’s hunkering down to focus on fundraising and meeting voters. Fundraising has never been an issue before for McCaul, who is one of the wealthiest members of Congress with a net worth in 2018 of $113 million according to Roll Call, a news outlet that ranks members by wealth based on their personal financial disclosure forms.

McCaul’s wealth derives from his wife, Linda Mays McCaul, whose father is Clear Channel Communications founder Lowry Mays.

Brandon Rottinghaus, a University of Houston political scientist, said: “As the Republican House member dominoes continue to fall, McCaul will be in a better position by default to be a more senior member from Texas. This will give him a stronger hand in determining the future of the Republican Party. Given he's independently wealthy and has a breadth of experience, he's likely always got a wandering eye for the next opportunity.”

The three Democrats vying to challenge McCaul are Pritesh Gandhi, a physician; Shannon Hutcheson, a lawyer; and Mike Siegel, a former city of Austin attorney who ran against McCaul in 2018.