Meet The Candidates: Cullin Knutson For Texas House District 86
HD86 hasn't had an open seat since 1985. Cullin Knutson is betting the Panhandle is ready to change directions.
This series is called Meet The Candidates. Over the next four months, I’ll spotlight a handful of Democratic races each month, mainly in the Legislature and in Congress. These aren’t endorsements. They’re introductions, a way to understand who’s running, the districts they hope to represent, and what’s at stake for people across Texas.
Who is Cullin Knutson?
Born and raised in Amarillo, Cullin Knutson got the political bug at 16. After Amarillo High School, he headed down to San Marcos for Texas State, where he earned a Political Science degree, Cum Laude, while working in the Texas House and waiting tables to keep the lights on.
Then he did what a lot of smart twenty-somethings with a poli-sci degree do. He went to work on campaigns, crisscrossing Texas for candidates and listening to what people actually need.
By 2015, Knutson stepped away from politics entirely and went to work in roadway construction, hauling himself from Midland to Galveston to Laredo for an Arizona outfit. When that company folded, he circled back to campaign work in 2016, then pivoted again in 2017 into his family’s asphalt and paving business in Amarillo, eventually running the show as general manager after a transfer to Arlington.
When the family sold the business in 2024, Knutson went home to Amarillo and took a job with the Panhandle Regional Planning Commission, serving all 26 counties of the Texas Panhandle. It was there, helping secure millions in Hazard Mitigation Grant Program funding for rural communities that Austin usually forgets exist, that something clicked. He resigned to run for office.
Cullin Knutson is someone who has worked in the Capitol, worked on the campaign trail, worked with his hands, run a small business, and worked for the rural communities Republicans love to talk about and rarely fund.
The district.
We have to start with this, about HD86, for the first time since 1985, John Smithee is not on the ballot here. In fact, I think both the Democrat and Republican running in this race were born after 1985. Smithee was a forty-one-year incumbent. This matters.
Now that he’s gone, HD86 is an open seat, and open seats behave differently than incumbent-protection races. There’s no name recognition to overcome, no decades of local goodwill, no “well, he’s always been my rep” muscle memory. Holly Jeffreys has to introduce herself to voters from scratch, just as Cullin Knutson does. That’s the first real point of leverage Democrats have had here in a generation.
Here’s the part that hasn’t changed. Smithee ran unopposed in both 2022 and 2024, so we don’t have a clean D-vs-R baseline for this seat since the last redistricting. What we do have is the top of the 2024 ticket, and it’s rough. Harris took 18.7% here to Trump’s 80.4%. Allred did marginally better against Cruz, 19.6% to 78.5%. Down the ballot, Democrats consistently landed in that same 16 to 18 percent band. It’s the district’s baseline partisan lean, and it stays in play whether or not his name is on the ballot.
HD86 is Randall County’s district. Randall is 67.8% Anglo, heavily college- and courthouse-in character thanks to West Texas A&M, and about as car-dependent as Texas gets. 90.3% of workers drive to work alone, with public transit effectively nonexistent. The other counties tell a different story. Deaf Smith is 74.9% Black and Hispanic combined. Dallam and Parmer are majority-minority, too. But they’re small and rural, and they get outvoted by Randall before the polls even close.
So what would it take to flip this seat? Two things stacked on top of each other. First, a genuine wave, like we’re expecting this year. Second, an open seat where the Republican brand is the only thing on the ballot, no incumbent halo to hide behind.
This still isn’t a top-tier flip target by the raw numbers. But it is the first genuinely open HD86 race in over four decades, in a wave-adjacent cycle, against a nominee doing Democrats’ opposition research for them. That combination is worth taking seriously, even if the math says it’s a reach.
The Republican opponent.
We already did sort of a deep dive on her last week, but her biggest claim to fame is training healthcare workers at West Texas A&M, while running for the party that’s chasing them out of the state.
She’s also a book-burner.
In Cullin Knutson’s own words.
Below are some questions I asked Knutson, based on previous reader polls, along with his answers.
Q: Do you support a statewide minimum wage increase to at least $15/hour?
Yes: for far too long, we have seen the cost of housing, energy, food, and other necessities in life rise, while we have not seen a rise in the minimum wage. It is a top priority to ensure that this government works for people, not corporations.
Q: Do you oppose school vouchers and efforts to privatize public education?
I am 100% in opposition to Vouchers. Privatization of these institutions disenfranchises working-class families. School choice has always existed, and if you are privileged enough in this life to afford a private institution, that is your prerogative. Not everyone has that luxury, and we must make sure that every child, no matter their background or zip code, has an equal opportunity to success in this state.
Q: Should Texas guarantee free school meals to all K–12 students, regardless of income?
Absolutely. This again goes to the above voucher statement. We must ensure that the future of Texas, our students, is provided an environment to learn and be successful, and that cannot be done on an empty stomach.
Q: Should Texas end tax breaks and regulatory loopholes for oil and gas companies, including exemptions from emissions reporting and waste disposal standards?
Yes, and further, I believe there needs to be significant accountability for those who skirt the law, and ownership of past deficiencies in the waste disposal that is currently a huge problem in our Permian Basin region.
Q: Would you support redirecting state subsidies from fossil fuels to fund community-owned solar, wind, and battery projects in low-income and rural areas?
Yes, I believe that we should be looking to the future for energy independence in this country that relies heavily on green energy investments. Additionally, I do not believe we achieve this by taking our good farm land to put up solar or wind, when we have an abundance of car parks, roofs, and other spaces where these investments can be made to the benefit of our communities.
Bonus Question: Who are your political role models, living or dead?
There are many current folks that I admire, such as our current Texas Democratic Chair, Kendall Scudder. As a fan of the New Deal, which had a huge hand in saving the panhandle of Texas during the Dust Bowl, and the Second Bill of Rights, I would also say FDR.
HD86 hasn’t had a real fight in it since 1985.
A Republican nominee who spent nine years banning books and now trains the nurses her own party is scaring out of the state. And a Democrat who’s paved the roads, worked the campaigns, waited the tables, and gone home to fight for the rural counties Austin forgets exist between elections.
The numbers say this is a reach. Eighteen percent isn’t a foothold, it’s a starting line. But numbers don’t account for open seats, and they don’t account for nominees who hand you their own contradictions gift-wrapped.
This is what an open door looks like. Somebody just has to walk through it.
You can find more about Cullin Knutson on his website, Facebook, or Instagram.
122 days until the November election!
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I love that he mentioned Kendall! And the Randall County Dem chair is amazing!
Kick ass, Cullin! Focus on the race ahead and don't compromise. Rooting for you from north Texas!