By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

When you spend nearly 18 years of your professional life commenting on and reporting on the affairs of a congressional district, it could be difficult letting go of that interest even after you move away from that area.

That’s what I am finding out about myself as I watch the goings-on in the 13th Congressional District of West Texas. The politics of that district was a big part of my life while I worked for the Amarillo Globe-News from 1995 until 2012. The congressman I covered, Republican Mac Thornberry, has retired. His successor is a clown/goofball/Twitter troll named Ronny Jackson.

Jackson, to be put it plainly, just pisses me off. Thus, I am likely to take an interest in the political campaign in 2022, when Jackson runs for re-election to a second term in Congress.

I hope he gets a serious butt-whuppin’, although I am acutely aware of how tough that will be, given the 13th’s strong Republican tradition.

Thus, a candidate named Kathleen Brown, a Wichita Falls lawyer, has declared her desire to win the Democratic Party primary next spring. She wants to run against Jackson. I will use this blog to extol her candidacy.

First things first. I need to learn more about this individual.

I used to think it was important for the 13th to be represented by someone from the Panhandle, given that the Panhandle lies at the heart of the sprawling district. Jackson, though, isn’t really “from” that region. He moved there just prior to the 2020 campaign to seek the seat that Thornberry was vacating. Indeed, Jackson — a retired physician, Navy admiral and suck-up to the 45th POTUS — had never lived there until he moved in.

So the residency requirement is now off the table for me. Kathleen Brown’s hometown is as much a part of the 13th as Amarillo.

I’m just going to keep my eyes peeled and my ears dialed in as the debate ramps up going into the midterm election.