In competitive South Texas legislative race, a fight emerges over a candidate’s Hispanic surname

Sign up for the We the Texans newsletter to receive twice-monthly updates on our year-long initiative dedicated to boosting civic engagement and chronicling how democracy is experienced in Texas.

---

In one of the most competitive statehouse races of the year, the Bexar County GOP accused Democrat Kristian Carranza of coopting a Hispanic surname to appeal to the San Antonio district’s largely Hispanic population.

Kris Coons, chair of the Bexar County Republican Party, said during a news conference Tuesday that Carranza had crossed out the last name “Thompson” on a 2023 voter registration application and replaced it with “Carranza” a month before she filed to run for office.

Carranza, whose legal last name was Thompson, officially changed her name in January 2023, but she has gone by Carranza professionally for at least a decade.

Carranza is facing off against state Rep. John Lujan, a San Antonio Republican, to represent House District 118 this November.

“It wasn’t until she moved into a proud Hispanic district to run for office that she suddenly changed her name to Carranza,” Coons said. “The residents of this district should not be fooled but somewhat insulted by such an action.”

Nearly two-thirds of the people living in House District 118 are Hispanic, according to state records.

A press release Monday initially stated the party would file a legal challenge to Carranza’s candidacy. On Tuesday, Coons said party officials are still reviewing a potential lawsuit against Carranza, but did not have an answer when asked about what law she violated.

Carranza denied that she changed her name for political expediency and said the allegation was another show of “disrespect for women” from Texas Republicans.

“It’s disrespectful to women across San Antonio and our country who change their names all the time for so many reasons,” she said in an interview with The Texas Tribune.

Carranza said the Bexar County GOP was “taking a page” from former President Donald Trump, who last week questioned whether Vice President Kamala Harris, whose father is Jamaican and mother is from India, had only recently decided to identify as Black to appeal to voters.

“This is an obvious attempt to undermine me and my story because they can clearly see that the voters of House District 118 are ready for change and ready for someone who’s going to roll their sleeves and fight for them, not stand on the sidelines like John Lujan has,” Carranza said, referring to the incumbent Republican state representative. “They just can’t believe that that person is a young Latina.”

Carranza, born and raised in the Southside of San Antonio, was given her biological father’s surname “Thompson” at birth. But because she was raised by a single mother, without the support of her father, Carranza said she uses her mother’s last name to honor her. Carranza began the process to legally change her last name in 2022 and that process was completed in January 2023, according to court records. She launched her state House campaign in September 2023.

She has used the surname Carranza in public for around a decade. She was already going by that name in 2019 when she was Nevada state director for Julián Castro’s presidential campaign. One of her superiors from a 2015 Affordable Care Act enrollment campaign, Kevin Puleo, also told the Tribune that her colleagues knew her as Carranza then. In a resume from 2016, Carranza identified herself as “Kristian Carranza Thompson.” Ferguson Yacyshyn, a Democratic operative who met Carranza when they both worked on the Hillary Clinton campaign in Florida, also said she went by Carranza then.

“It just seems, after 30 years, right before her race, that the name gets changed, that’s all we’re questioning,” Coons said.

Responding to the claim in a statement, Carranza wrote: “Mi nombre es Kristian Carranza and, like it or not, I’m running to stand up for San Antonio families.”

In a statement, Lujan said Carranza changed her name for “political reasons.”

“This situation involving a name change for political reasons is not acceptable, and it’s important that all public figures remain accountable to the people they seek to represent,” Lujan said. “While my opponent will need to address this issue directly with the voters, I want to reiterate my own commitment to transparency and effective representation as the State Representative for District 118.”

This is not the first time the voter registration application with the crossed out name has been used against Carranza. During her primary race, her Democratic opponent Carlos Quezada also put the document on a campaign mailer.

Lujan was first elected to House District 118 in 2016 in a special election but lost it in the November general election. He was re-elected to the seat in November 2021.

The race between Lujan and Carranza is one of the few potential flips for Democrats this year. Carranza has raised impressive amounts of money in her race to take back a seat that had traditionally been held by Democrats. She raised $264,000 to Lujan’s $70,000 in the last fundraising cycle which ended in June.

---

The full program is now LIVE for the 2024 Texas Tribune Festival, happening Sept. 5–7 in downtown Austin. Explore the program featuring more than 100 unforgettable conversations on topics covering education, the economy, Texas and national politics, criminal justice, the border, the 2024 elections and so much more. See the full program.