No recommendation in race for Texas House District 106

Voters in state House District 106 will have to choose between incumbent Republican Jared Patterson and Democratic challenger Hava Johnston.
We aren’t willing to recommend either candidate to represent this district covering parts of Denton County, including portions of Frisco, The Colony, Prosper and others.
We didn’t recommend Patterson, 41, when he ran for the State Legislature in 2018, saying he was “an extreme conservative whose divisive views are wrong for Texas.” In the 2020 election, we recommended him with reservations about his us-versus-them “conservatism,” but ultimately cited his growth as a lawmaker.
Doubtless, Patterson has grown, but his us-versus-them mentality hasn’t diminished. Over the last few years, we’ve seen him pushing increasingly extreme bills we can’t support.
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Patterson helped pass the Texas Heartbeat Act in 2021, a law that prohibited abortions once a fetal heartbeat is detected. It’s a poorly crafted law that we described as dangerous at the time.
Compare the candidates’ answers to our questions in our Voter Guide.
Another 2021 law allows people 21 and older who can legally own a handgun to carry it without a license. We’ve strongly opposed permitless carry, enabled by a law that Patterson coauthored and helped pass.
And last session, Patterson authored the READER Act, requiring vendors to rate titles containing sexual content so that books deemed “sexually explicit” would not be sold to school districts. There were legitimate concerns with some titles, but it was unwise to use the heavy hand of the state to advance the culture wars.
We’ve agreed with some legislation Patterson has been involved in, such as the SCOPE Act that limits data collection from minors without parental consent. And he voted in favor of impeaching Attorney General Ken Paxton. But the bad outweighs the good here.
Patterson declined to be interviewed, and although he answered our Voter Guide questionnaire, he did not respond to any policy-related questions in it.
Johnston, 51, is a Realtor and has little political experience. She ran unsuccessfully for Frisco City Council in 2020.
We appreciate Johnston’s compassion, openness and the spirit of unity she said she wants to bring to Texas, but she lacks the experience we think she would need to be a successful lawmaker. And while we agree with her on issues such as gun reform and, at least partly on abortion, she holds other positions that don’t sync with us.
Johnston said she supports the abolition of the STAAR test, but did not offer any specific replacement for it other than forming an exploratory committee to study the issue. She showed a weak grasp on policy questions such as what the state’s role should be in securing the border.
Neither Patterson nor Johnston is a good choice for this district, and we offer no recommendation between them.
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