Incumbent Mark Keough leads fundraising in Montgomery County judge race by end of 2021

Ahead of the March 1 Republican primary for the Montgomery County judge’s position, incumbent Mark Keough leads the three-candidate field in terms of contributions.

Only Republican candidates filed to run for the judge’s seat in 2022.

According to filings that were due Jan. 18 and covered July 1-Dec. 31, Keough raised $53,740.

The largest individual contributors to the Keough campaign were the Texas Association of Realtors Political Action Committe and Robert Martin, owner of GeoScience Engineering and Testing, the Houston-based consulting and engineering firm. Both donors contributed $10,000.

Challenger Sara Countryman, the mayor of Montgomery, raised $33,598.40 in the same filing period. The largest individual contributor was retiree Karen Webb, who made four separate contributions totaling $7,000 during the filing period.

Challenger Billy Graff, a local businessman, raised $16,347 in the filing period. The largest contributor to the campaign was Conroe-based attorney Eric Yollick, who contributed $2,500.

Keough also led the field in expenditures, spending $48,704.41 in political expenditures, per his filing. Countryman recorded $13,950.02 spent, while Graff spent $9,242.64.

Keough also indicated that he used $50,000 of his available political contributions to make a loan repayment, considered a non-political expense, although the specifics of the loan were not described. Keough’s campaign reported a $130,000 loan in the Jan. 18 report, as well as a total principal of $324,900 for outstanding loans.

Keough is running for his second term in office after defeating Democrat Jay Stittleburg in 2018. Countryman, who was first elected in 2018, will end her second term as Montgomery mayor in May. Graff previously ran for the county’s Precinct 1 commissioner, losing to Robert Walker in 2020.

Voter registration for the March primary will close Jan. 31. Montgomery County approved its early-voting locations at a Jan. 11 Commissioners Court session.