Ed Kless

Ed Kless (Libertarian Party) is running for election to the Texas State Senate to represent District 8. He is on the ballot in the general election on November 5, 2024. He advanced from the Libertarian Party convention on March 23, 2024.

Biography

Ed Kless was born in Brooklyn, New York. He earned a bachelor's degree from Pace University in 1987. Kless' career experience includes working as the senior director of partner development and strategy at Sage.^[1]

Elections

2024

General election

The candidate list in this election may not be complete.

General election for Texas State Senate District 8

Incumbent Angela Paxton, Rachel Mello, and Ed Kless are running in the general election for Texas State Senate District 8 on November 5, 2024.

		Candidate
		Angela Paxton (R)
		Rachel Mello (D)
		Ed Kless (L)

	Incumbents are bolded and underlined.
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Democratic primary election

Democratic primary for Texas State Senate District 8

Rachel Mello advanced from the Democratic primary for Texas State Senate District 8 on March 5, 2024.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Rachel Mello	100.0	23,078

	There were no incumbents in this race. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 23,078
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
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Republican primary election

Republican primary for Texas State Senate District 8

Incumbent Angela Paxton advanced from the Republican primary for Texas State Senate District 8 on March 5, 2024.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Angela Paxton	100.0	68,007

	Incumbents are bolded and underlined. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 68,007
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
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Libertarian convention

Libertarian convention for Texas State Senate District 8

Ed Kless advanced from the Libertarian convention for Texas State Senate District 8 on March 23, 2024.

		Candidate
✔		Ed Kless (L)

	There were no incumbents in this race. Source
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
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Endorsements

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2022

General election

General election for Texas State Senate District 8

Incumbent Angela Paxton defeated Jon Cocks and Ed Kless in the general election for Texas State Senate District 8 on November 8, 2022.

	Candidate	%	Votes
✔	Angela Paxton (R)	57.7	187,754
	Jon Cocks (D)	39.5	128,399
	Ed Kless (L)	2.9	9,293

	Incumbents are bolded and underlined. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 325,446
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
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Democratic primary election

Democratic primary for Texas State Senate District 8

Jon Cocks advanced from the Democratic primary for Texas State Senate District 8 on March 1, 2022.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Jon Cocks	100.0	24,775

	There were no incumbents in this race. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 24,775
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.
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Republican primary election

Republican primary for Texas State Senate District 8

Incumbent Angela Paxton defeated Matt Rostami in the Republican primary for Texas State Senate District 8 on March 1, 2022.

	Candidate	%	Votes
✔	Angela Paxton	65.2	46,355
	Matt Rostami	34.8	24,794

	Incumbents are bolded and underlined. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 71,149
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
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Libertarian convention

Libertarian convention for Texas State Senate District 8

Ed Kless advanced from the Libertarian convention for Texas State Senate District 8 on March 19, 2022.

		Candidate
✔		Ed Kless (L)

	There were no incumbents in this race. The results have been certified. Source
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
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Withdrawn or disqualified candidates

Carl Jameson (L)

Campaign finance

2020

General election

General election for Texas House of Representatives District 89

Incumbent Candy Noble defeated Ray Ash and Ed Kless in the general election for Texas House of Representatives District 89 on November 3, 2020.

	Candidate	%	Votes
✔	Candy Noble (R)	59.0	58,102
	Ray Ash (D)	38.5	37,837
	Ed Kless (L)	2.5	2,466

	Incumbents are bolded and underlined. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 98,405
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
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Democratic primary election

Democratic primary for Texas House of Representatives District 89

Ray Ash defeated Jon Cocks in the Democratic primary for Texas House of Representatives District 89 on March 3, 2020.

	Candidate	%	Votes
✔	Ray Ash	54.5	7,000
	Jon Cocks	45.5	5,838

	There were no incumbents in this race. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 12,838
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.
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Republican primary election

Republican primary for Texas House of Representatives District 89

Incumbent Candy Noble advanced from the Republican primary for Texas House of Representatives District 89 on March 3, 2020.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Candy Noble	100.0	14,212

	Incumbents are bolded and underlined. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 14,212
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.
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Libertarian convention

Libertarian convention for Texas House of Representatives District 89

Ed Kless advanced from the Libertarian convention for Texas House of Representatives District 89 on March 21, 2020.

		Candidate
✔		Ed Kless (L)

	There were no incumbents in this race. The results have been certified.
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team.

Campaign finance

2014

See also: Texas Lieutenant Gubernatorial election, 2014

Kless ran for election to the office of Lieutenant Governor.^[2] He withdrew on December 7, 2013.^[3]

2012

See also: Texas State Senate elections, 2012

Kless ran in the 2012 election for Texas State Senate, District 8. Kless ran unopposed in the May 29 primary election and was defeated by Ken Paxton (R) in the general election, which took place on November 6, 2012.^[4]

**Texas State Senate, District 8, General Election, 2012**
Party		Candidate	Vote %	Votes
	Republican	Ken Paxton	62.3%	178,238
	Democratic	Jack Ternan	34.6%	99,010
	Libertarian	Ed Kless	3.1%	8,899
Total Votes				286,147

2010

See also: Texas State Senate elections, 2010

Kless was defeated by incumbent Florence Shapiro (R) in the November 2 general election.^[4]

Texas State Senate, District 8 2010 General election results
Candidates	Votes	Percent
Florence Shapiro (R)	136,369	84.02%
Ed Kless (L)	25,935	15.97%

Campaign themes

2024

Ballotpedia survey responses

Ed Kless has not yet completed Ballotpedia's 2024 Candidate Connection survey. If you are Ed Kless, click here to fill out Ballotpedia's 2024 Candidate Connection survey.

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2022

Ed Kless did not complete Ballotpedia's 2022 Candidate Connection survey.

2020

Ed Kless completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2020. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Kless' responses. Candidates are asked three required questions for this survey, but they may answer additional optional questions as well.

Expand all | Collapse all

Who are you? Tell us about yourself.

Ed Kless joined Sage in July of 2003 and is currently the senior director of partner development and strategy. He develops and delivers curriculum for Sage business partners on the art and practice of small business consulting including the Sage Consulting Academy, Business Strategy and Customer Experience Workshops.

Ed hosts the Sage Advice Podcast and co-hosts the VoiceAmerica TalkShow Network's The Soul of Enterprise with Ron Baker, founder of the VeraSage Institute where Ed is also a senior fellow. They coauthored The Soul of Enterprise: Dialogues on Business in the Knowledge Economy, a compendium of a few of the episodes.

Ed is a contributor to industry publications and has spoken at many conferences worldwide on project management, pricing, and knowledge workers. He is also active in the Information Technology Alliance (ITA) and has been named to Accounting Today's list of the 100 Most Influential People in Accounting numerous times including 2019. Additionally, Ed is a faculty member of the Professional Pricing Society.

He lives in Allen, Texas, just north of Dallas with his wife and two children and ran for Texas State Senate in 2010 and 2012 as a Libertarian.

Please list below 3 key messages of your campaign. What are the main points you want voters to remember about your goals for your time in office?

Entrepreneurs continue the work of creation
Reducing the size and scope of government leads to increased human flourishing
End the duopoly

What areas of public policy are you personally passionate about?

Reducing the size and influence of government at all levels. I truly believe that while we all have an obligation to help our fellow humans during our time on this Earth, that government not only does a lousy job but actually makes things worse. Society is an unmitigated good, government, by definition, is power and ultimately does more harm than good despite the best efforts of many well-intentioned people.

Note: Ballotpedia reserves the right to edit Candidate Connection survey responses. Any edits made by Ballotpedia will be clearly marked with [brackets] for the public. If the candidate disagrees with an edit, he or she may request the full removal of the survey response from Ballotpedia.org. Ballotpedia does not edit or correct typographical errors unless the candidate's campaign requests it.

Campaign finance summary

Note: The finance data shown here comes from the disclosures required of candidates and parties. Depending on the election or state, this may represent only a portion of all the funds spent on their behalf. Satellite spending groups may or may not have expended funds related to the candidate or politician on whose page you are reading this disclaimer. Campaign finance data from elections may be incomplete. For elections to federal offices, complete data can be found at the FEC website. Click here for more on federal campaign finance law and here for more on state campaign finance law.

Ed Kless campaign contribution history
Year	Office	Status	Contributions	Expenditures
2022	Texas State Senate District 8	Lost general	$0	$0
Grand total			$0	$0
Sources: OpenSecrets, Federal Elections Commission *This product uses the openFEC API but is not endorsed or certified by the Federal Election Commission (FEC).

External links

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Candidate

Texas State Senate District 8

Personal

Footnotes

↑ Information submitted to Ballotpedia through the Candidate Connection survey on October 5, 2020
↑ Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; no text was provided for refs named chron
↑ Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; no text was provided for refs named 2014withdraw
↑ ^4.0 ^4.1 Texas Secretary of State, "Elections History," accessed June 5, 2014

[show]

Current members of the Texas State Senate

Leadership

Senators

District 1

Bryan Hughes (R)

District 2

Bob Hall (R)

District 3

Robert Nichols (R)

District 4

Brandon Creighton (R)

District 5

Charles Schwertner (R)

District 6

Carol Alvarado (D)

District 7

Paul Bettencourt (R)

District 8

Angela Paxton (R)

District 9

Kelly Hancock (R)

District 10

Phil King (R)

District 11

Mayes Middleton (R)

District 12

Tan Parker (R)

District 13

Borris Miles (D)

District 14

Sarah Eckhardt (D)

District 15

Molly Cook (D)

District 16

Nathan Johnson (D)

District 17

Joan Huffman (R)

District 18

Lois Kolkhorst (R)

District 19

Roland Gutierrez (D)

District 20

Juan Hinojosa (D)

District 21

Judith Zaffirini (D)

District 22

Brian Birdwell (R)

District 23

Royce West (D)

District 24

Peter Flores (R)

District 25

Donna Campbell (R)

District 26

José Menéndez (D)

District 27

Morgan LaMantia (D)

District 28

Charles Perry (R)

District 29

César Blanco (D)

District 30

Drew Springer (R)

District 31

Kevin Sparks (R)

Republican Party (19)

Democratic Party (12)

[bio-1] Information submitted to Ballotpedia through the Candidate Connection survey on October 5, 2020

[chron-2] Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; no text was provided for refs named chron

[2014withdraw-3] Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; no text was provided for refs named 2014withdraw

[elchist-4] 4.0 ^4.1 Texas Secretary of State, "Elections History," accessed June 5, 2014

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

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Ed Kless

Biography

Elections

2024

General election

General election for Texas State Senate District 8

Democratic primary election

Democratic primary for Texas State Senate District 8

Republican primary election

Republican primary for Texas State Senate District 8

Libertarian convention

Libertarian convention for Texas State Senate District 8

Endorsements

2022

General election

General election for Texas State Senate District 8

Democratic primary election

Democratic primary for Texas State Senate District 8

Republican primary election

Republican primary for Texas State Senate District 8

Libertarian convention

Libertarian convention for Texas State Senate District 8

Withdrawn or disqualified candidates

Campaign finance

2020

General election

General election for Texas House of Representatives District 89

Democratic primary election

Democratic primary for Texas House of Representatives District 89

Republican primary election

Republican primary for Texas House of Representatives District 89

Libertarian convention

Libertarian convention for Texas House of Representatives District 89

Campaign finance

2014

2012

2010

Campaign themes

2024

Ballotpedia survey responses

2022

2020

Campaign finance summary

See also

External links

Footnotes

Information about voting

2024 Elections

2025 Elections

Analysis

Public Policy

Information for candidates

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