State Rep. Justin Holland, ex-Trump spokeswoman Katrina Pierson runoff gets statewide attention
ROCKWALL COUNTY, Texas - Monday is the first day of early voting for the March primary runoff elections.
One contest getting attention is the race for Texas House District 33. Republican incumbent Justin Holland is taking on challenger Katrina Pierson, a former spokeswoman for the Trump campaign.
Holland voted against school vouchers and now his opponent has the support of Texas Governor Greg Abbott.
Now, it is up for voters to decide.
READ MORE: Early voting begins for Texas primary runoffs
Both candidates were at the Rockwall County Library for Day 1 of early voting.
"Old school Rockwall is turning out, new Rockwall is turning out, we are really excited," said Pierson on Monday.
"We’ve had a lot of people showing up, it’s important to them," said Rep. Holland.
In the March primary, Holland and Pierson both got 39 percent of the vote, forcing a runoff.
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Justin Holland, Katrina Pierson race for Texas House District 33 headed to runoff
State Rep. Justin Holland and former Trump campaign official Katrina Pierson are headed to a runoff in the Texas House District 33 race.
Leading up to the runoff, the Pierson campaign has targeted Holland in several commercials.
"Justin Holland is just too liberal," one of the commercials says.
FOX 4 asked Holland what he thinks of the attacks against him.
"We live in a situation where you are told what type of Republican you are supposed to be. I’m a conservative Republican. I voted for all the major border security, gun legislation, property taxes," Holland replied.
Holland has represented District 33 since 2017.
Pierson is a former Tea Party activist, best known as Donald Trump's national spokesperson in the 2016 campaign.
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Holland claims she doesn't know this district and isn't from this district.
"You can’t say I’m not from here when I am actually from here. Essentially right next to his city, I grew up in Forney, Texas, which is right down the road. So he wants people to think I’m not from here," Pierson replied.
Holland had Governor Abbott turned against him after voting against the governor's school voucher plan.
"We need to be increasing the basical allotment, giving bonuses for student achievement, giving teacher raises, making sure there’s nothing that can ever be done to take money away from public schools, and I haven’t seen a voucher program that looked good that I can support for my community," said Holland.
Gov. Abbott is backing Pierson in the runoff as he hopes to push through education savings accounts with the next legislature.
"I support education savings accounts, which is different than vouchers, and that’s what we are trying to get in Texas, because every family should be able to choose the quality of education that suits their child’s needs. We don’t need a government-run monopoly educating our children, we have seen the system fail," said Pierson.
Gov. Greg Abbott 'certain' school vouchers will pass
Texas Governor Greg Abbott has made passing school choice legislation a top priority. The governor sat down with FOX 4's Steven Dial to talk about where things stand after the primary election and says deals that were previously offered may now be off the table.
Governor Abbott told FOX 4 in April that he is confident he will have enough votes to pass education savings account legislation.
The governor will be in Rockwall on Friday to campaign with Pierson.