- Well tonight, 6 Investigates the race for the 27th Congressional District seat. It's up for grabs now because incumbent Republican Blake Farenthold is not running. And there are lots of new faces running to replace him. But chief investigative reporter Rick Spruill has noticed something about several of the candidates, and our resident political expert says that something could make a difference at the polls. - To represent voters in the Texas House of Representatives, you have to reside in the district for a year before the general election. Same is true of state senators, judges, even sheriffs and tax collectors have to live among those they serve before running for office. But if you want to run for Congress, there is no such requirement, and several of the candidates on our primary ballot are taking full advantage of that fact. Texas A&M Corpus Christi's David Smith tells 6 Investigates that residency matters when selecting who will represent you in Washington. - What committees are you gonna serve on? What interests or what legislative activity are you going to take up on behalf of the constituents if you don't have some grounding or some vested interest in the community itself that you're representing, the district itself? - After all, the district begins right here in Oasis County in Corpus Christi, runs North along the coast, and then jets back Northwest toward Bastrop near Austin. Smith says it's an incredibly complicated district, and people want to know that you're with them, and that you live among them. So we decided to check. Republican John Grunwald lives in Houston. That's well outside of the district. That's where he's owned a home for many years. The same is true of Democrat Vanessa Edwards Foster. Other candidates can claim they live here, but look closer; you'll find they just moved in. Republican Bech Bruun set up shop in a family vacation home in Rockport last month, after spending the better part of two decades in or near Austin. And Democrat Eric Holguin had been living in New York City for a decade when he rented an apartment on Ennis Joslin last fall. We want to point out that Holguin, Bruun and Edwards Foster all claim Corpus Christi roots, and Smith says that those roots can overcome residency issues as long as a candidate hasn't been gone too long. - So maybe the connections have faded over time, or they're not as prominent or as important as they had been in the past. - [Rick] So they may have lost touch. - Absolutely. - [Rick] Republican Jerry Hall is harder to pin down. He's renting a place on McArdle Road, but public records tie him to Florida. He's not confirming either way, so in all there are five candidates on the March ballot who don't live in the district, just moved into it, or won't say one way or the other. That leaves five others. Democrat Ronnie McDonald lives in Bastrop, Republican Eddie Gassman and Democrat Roy Barrera both live here in Corpus Christi, Republican Michael Cloud is in Victoria, and Republican Chris Mapp lives in Port O'Connor. All are locations within the 27th Congressional District. Rick Spruill, 6 Investigates. - So now you have an idea about where the candidates live, but where do they stand on the issues? Well if you'd like to do some reading on that, we posted links to the candidates who actually have campaign pages and you're going to find those in the online version of Rick's story at kristv.com.