Tag Archives: Texas GOP

political news, State news

Is this young man the one?

For a good while I have been yammering about the need for the major political parties to rally around an unknown politician, someone who emerges suddenly with a fresh voice, spoken from a fresh perspective.

I believe the Texas Democratic Party has a chance to bring such a young man to the foreftont of the political stage.

If you haven’t heard the name James Talarico, my hunch is that you will quite soon. Talarico brings a perspective to Democratic politics one likely didn’t see coming. He’s a deeply devoted and faithful Christian. He leans heavily on New Testament Scripture to illustrate his policy stances. Talarico taught school in San Antonio. He now serves in the Texas House of Representatives and is standing for general Democratic principles while waging fights with his Republican colleagues.

I like this young man’s approach to problem solving. I like it a lot!

My former favorite for the Democratic nomination to the U.S. Senate race in 2026 is former congressman Colin Allred, who boasted continually in 2024 about his strong polling against Sen. Ted Cruz … only to lose by double digits on Election Day. Allred is making another run at the U.S. Senate. I wish him well, but I am leaning heavily toward James Talarico.

I am not naive. It is going to take a monstrous effort by Talarico to overturn decades of GOP dominance in statewide elective public office. It seems to be his best course toward victory would be if Republicans nominate Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, a man with more political wounds than any politician I have ever seen. He’s been attacked by his own AG staff, impeached by the Texas House, divorced by his wife because he cheated on her. This guy is seriously damaged.

I cannot find that kind of blemish on Talarico’s record. I do see a young man who is unafraid to proclaim his religious faith … but he doesn’t support the Christian nationalist agenda of melding religion into government policy. He wants to keep religion where it belongs, in houses of worship, and away from public schools, county courthouses and city halls.

He has jumped out of the tall grass and will seek to do the seemingly impossible in a state where Republicans stand tall over the political landscape. I am going to do what I can to help James Talarico advance his message.

political news, State news

Get a grip, Texas Democrats

Texas Democrats need to get hold of themselves and stop all this wishful thinking about whether they’re on the verge of breaking the Republican visegrip on electoral public office.

I keep getting text messages from this and/or that candidate — real and potential — for any statewide office. They keep demanding money from me. I don’t have it to give. When the beseech me, they tell me their polling shows them leading their Republican foes. Uh huh, sure thing.

Colin Allred said the same thing in 2024,  but then lost to the Cruz Missile — aka Sen. Ted Cruz — by double digits. Allred, a former Dallas congressman, got stars in his eyes because Beto O’Rourke damn near beat Cruz six years earlier, losing to Cancun Ted by 2 or 3 percentage points.

Now we have another MAGA darling, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, rearing his ugly puss from the crowd, He leads Sen. John Cornyn in GOP primary polling by about 5 points. What does that mean for Democrats? It means, as near as I can tell, that they’re going to have find a new strategy to deploy if they have any hope of prying the GOP jaws off this statewide office. Democrats last won a Senate election in 1988, when Lloyd Bentsen was re-elected while losing as the VP candidate on the national Democratic ticket led by Massachusetts Gov. Mike Dukakis.

I want the Democrats to break through. I want Texas to become a competitive place where candidates from both major parties can argue their differences clearly, cleanly, passionately and without fear.

At the moment, it appears to this blogger and longtime observer of Texas politics that the GOP is being choked by the MAGA morons who continue to swallow the swill served by the nation’s chief Republican In Name Only, Donald J. Trump.

I’ll just add one more observation. Trump once said before he became an actual politician that were he to run he would do so as a Republican, because Republicans were the more gullible Americans he would need to persuade to follow him down some path to oblivion.

Trump was right!

national news, political news, State news

Who’s rigging elections now?

Donald J. Trump spent a great deal of emotional capital — as well as other people’s valuable time — ranting and railing against what he alleged was a “rigged” election for president of the United States.

He even provoked an armed assault on our government the day Congress was to ratify the 2020 Electoral College result that elected Joe Biden president in 2020. Trump never provided a shred of proof of any rigging or corruption, but he damn sure had the MAGA crowd believing the mule dookey he was peddling.

Here are now, in 2025, and we have an actual tangible, provable case of election manipulation — or rigging if you will — of a 2026 congressional election. It is being orchestrated by Trump. He bullied the Texas Legislature into redrawing five congressional districts that were tilting toward the Democrats to places that now reportedly lean Republican. Trump wants to strengthen the GOP’s slim congressional majority and he talked Texas Republicans to sign on as election-fixing co-conspirators.

Where I come from, I believe they call that “rigging an election.” Texas GOP lawmakers bought the crap Trump offered and engineered the redrawing of the lines over the stiff opposition of Texas Democratic legislators who bolted the state for two weeks to avoid a quorum required for the Legislature to do any business.

The reaction in California was swift. Gov. Gavin Newsom persuaded that state’s legislative assembly to put a measure on the November ballot that would legalize an effort to flip several GOP-leaning congressional districts to Democratic-leaning ones. As much as I endorse the principle behind the effort, and the reason for it, I fear that we might be losing “free and fair elections” to the whims of politicians who are, in Newsom’s words, “fighting fire with fire.”

They do it differently in California than we do it here. In Texas, we entrust our Legislature to redraw the lines. In California, they appoint an independent commission to do it. Still, the Golden State remedy has the scent of revenge … and I don’t like the way it smells.

Back to my original point. Donald Trump’s allegation of a “rigged election” in 2020 rings hollower than ever when we witness the real thing taking place in Texas and elsewhere.

political news, State news

Democrats are working for their bosses

You want to know what is playing out in Austin in this congressional redistricting standoff provoked by Donald Trump’s insistence that Republicans redraw the lines to seek the election of at least five more Texas Republicans to Congress?

Democrats have bolted from the Legislature, leaving the body without a quorum to do business. GOP leaders accuse them of being derelict in their duty. They are wrong! Democrats are working for the voters who sent them to office in the first place by seeking to protect their voices in the legislative chamber.

Texas Democrats are demonstrating that they work for the people who elect them, not for the leadership of the other party that happens to control the flow of legislation.

This kiind of rebellion shows itself on occasion. I remember when it did in the 1990s. Republicans had taken over control of the U.S. House in the 1994 Contract with America election. House Speaker Newt Gingrich pushed forward legislation called Freedom to Farm. One of the key opponents of that bill was a congressman from West Texas, Republican Larry Combest. He said the bill ran counter to the interests of the farmers and ranchers he represented. Combest told Gingrich that he worked for them, not for the GOP leadership.

I praised Combest for his guts from my post as editorial page editor of the Amarillo Globe-News.

Combest’s courageous stubbornness cost him a key House ag committee chairmanship for a while. He stuck to his principles.

That is not dissimilar to what is occurring now with Democrats scattered hither and yon away from Austin. The special session will expire in a few days. GOP Gov. Greg Abbott says he’ll call another one — and wll keep calling them until the Legislature does Donald Trump’s bidding.

That kind of fealty to a charlatan sickens me to my core. Yet for Abbott and GOP Attoney General Ken Paxton to accuse Democrats of dereliction of duty makes me just as sick. Abbott and Paxton and the GOP majority don’t work for Donald Trump. They work for Texans who deserve a Legislature that knows how to govern.

State news

Stand your ground, Texas Democrats

The Great Texas Redistricting Standoff appears to be holding firm, but for how long remains an open question.

This Texas voter — and admitted fan of what Texas’s legislative Democrats are seeking to do — wants it to continue for as long as it takes.

Democratic House members are seeking to deny the legislative leadership the quorum they need to conduct the business of the Legislature. The key item under the gun is the Republican effort to redraw at least five congressional seats — at a time not prescribed in the US Constitution — to make them more GOP friendly. House Democrats have skedaddled to places out of state to prevent that from occurring.

The House Republican caucus’s effort is so wrong on so many levels.

Republicans are acting at the insistence of Donald Trump, the RINO in chief who wants to protect the thin Republican majority in the House. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is seeking to issue “civil arrest” warrants to bring Democrats back to Austin; why in the world would he act against lawmakers who are breaking no law? Paxton also is seeking to expel at least a dozen House Democrats from the Legislature … huh? GOP Gov. Greg Abbott wants to investigate the source of funding for Democrats who are getting help from political allies aiding them in their fight against this intrastate tyranny.

Donald Trump is seeking to rig the 2026 midterm election with this ham-fisted ploy to get the Texas Legislature to do his bidding. To think that this is the same dipshit who accused Democrats of rigging the 2020 presidential election that Trump lost without ever offering a shred, a scintilla, a tiny nugget of proof to back up what he alleged occurred.

No one can predict how long Democrats will hold out. The special session ends on Aug. 19. There might be another one called. What then? This endeavor is beyond bizarre … but for my money, it should continue until Texas Republicans realize that they are surrendering their hard-earned control of power in Texas to a maniac.

national news, political news

Yes, block GOP effort to redraw boundaries

This will surprise no one who reads this blog regularly … but I am going to back Texas legislative Democrats’ efforts to stop the Legislature’s Republican majority from redrawing the state’s congressional districts to ensure the election of even more GOP members to Congress.

Democrats who comprise the Legislature’s minority have fled the state. At least 51 Texas Democrats are holed up somewhere to prevent a House vote on a plan urged by Donald Trump and endorsed by his GOP pals Gov. Greg Abbott and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick to re-jigger boundaries to bolster the Republican majority in the U.S. House.

This reapportionment matter takes place every decade when the Census is taken. It falls on the Legislature to redraw these lines. I remember the late state Sen. Teel Bivins, an Amarillo Republican, bemoaning the task. He said it gave legislative Republicans a “chance to eat their young.” I still am not sure what he meant by that, but I took it to mean partly that he didn’t like having to redraw the lines.

It’s not clear to me or to many others how long this strategy will hold up. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton calls Democrats “cowards” for shirking their duty. He vows to arrest them, although leaving the state in this fashion is a civil offense, so arresting legislators remains an iffy proposition.

Legislators have tried this before. Previous walkouts have ended when Democrats who vowed to hang tough forever gave in, enabling Republicans to get their way.

I am just aghast that Donald Trump would encourage this form of political bullying and I am delighted that Texas Democrats — so far! — are standing firm in opposition to this interference in Texas politics.  

education news, local news

Texas GOP goes anti-rural

Glenn Rogers writes a column for the Dallas Morning News and in his most recent submission he makes an astonishing assertion about the direction of the state’s Republican Party.

He said the party has become “anti-rural” in its outlook and its policy priorities.

He writes: Based on my personal experience and discussions with rural-focused organizations, I would say the top priorities for rural Texas are supporting public schools, providing access to quality health care, improving the quantity and quality of water resources, and improving communication capabilities.

I want to focus on the first item he lists, “supporting public schools.”

Texas public education is taking it on the chin, in the gut and maybe even in the groin by policies that strip public money from public school classrooms. The GOP-dominated Legislature recently enacted a bill that allows parents to spend public money to send their children to private schools. I consider that a direct affront on the public school system that, in my view, has served Texas families well since, oh, maybe the beginning of time.

Lawmakers tried to foist this issue onto the books in 2023, but Republican lawmakers representing rural school districts resisted. Many of them represent districts here in North Texas, where life revolves around the health and well-being of the independent public school district.

Something or someone got to those folks during the current Legislature and they climbed aboard the school voucher bandwagon to approve it and sent it to Gov. Greg Abbott’s desk for his signature.

This is the kind of action that destroys rural communities. Rogers, a rancher and veterinarian in Palo Pinto County, served in the Texas House from 2021 until this year. He writes that public education is the “backbone and leading employer in rural communities.” He adds that “without their public schools, small towns … would be devastated.”

So, why do Republicans in the Legislature insist on gutting these communities? Why do they knowingly take money needed to bolster public education and allow parents to send kids to private schools?

This is a turn that a once-great political party has taken. I believe it will bite the Grand Old Party squarely in its backside.

Donald Trump

Buyer’s remorse: It’s real!

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Well, gang …. perhaps you have heard some chatter about Donald Trump voters feeling “buyer’s remorse” over casting votes for Trump.

I am going to tell you that the remorse is real. I met a Trumpkin this week who expressed it to me, to my face, out loud and in a public place.

My friend told me she supported many of Trump’s policies during the 2016 presidential campaign. So, she voted for him. Then came the 2020 election and, believing his term in office was a success, she vote for him again for re-election.

Then the 2024 campaign commenced and there he was … again! And once more, Trump got my friend’s vote.

Then he ran off the rails, flew into the ditch and has been flailing ever since. His myriad pronoucements about the Panama Canal, Greenland, Canada becoming a U.S. state and a host of other bizarre statements and decisions have pushed this supporter aside.

“He has gone way too far,” she said this week, pressing her hand to her forehead.

Yeah. Do ya think?

She is a Texas native. She has witnessed the state’s transformation from a “yellow dog Democratic” state to a rock-ribbed Republican fortress. With Trump at the helm of the GOP, I am absolutely certain she is not alone in feeling remorse over what this idiot is doing to the country we all love.

political news, State news

House shines with glimmer of hope

There’s the slightest glimmer of hope coming from the Texas State Capitol Building after the House of Representatives selected a new speaker of the lower legislative chamber.

Rep. Dustin Burrows, R-Lubbock, will take the gavel and lead the House for the next legislative session that began this week.

Why the hope? Well, Burrows is an ally of Rep, Dade Phelan of Beaumont, who angered the MAGA crowd with his handling of (a) the impeachment trial of Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and (b) key legislative initiatives favored by Gov. Greg Abbott.

That suggests to me that Burrows might be more, um, moderate than the right-wingers of his Republican Party would prefer. Burrows, for example, is not slamming the door on selecting legislative Democrats to chair House committees. He said in December he prefers for the entire House to decide on those chairmanships, not just the speaker. Hmm, that sounds a tiny bit promising.

Burrows does favor Abbott’s school voucher notion, so he won’t scuttle that initiative.

Back to the chairmanship matter. It’s important to realize that the Legislature does contain members of both major parties. And that they represent Texans of all political stripes, principles and beliefs. I am one Texan who does not want to see the Legislature do the bidding of those who favor issues to which I am fundamentally opposed.

Besides, any legislator who can incur the wrath of super right-wing lobbyist Michael Quinn Sullivan — which Burrows has done — is OK in my book.,

local news, political news, State news

Abortion to ‘challenge’ Texas Legislature?

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The headline atop the front page of the Dallas Morning News screamed out that the new Texas Legislature faces many “challenges” as it prepares to get to work on our behalf for the next five months.

One of them surely is going to be abortion and whether legislators are intent on banning all abortive procedures, all of ’em, making women, spouses and docs criminals.

Newly sworn in Rep. Brent Money, R-Greenville, says categorically that Texas must ban all abortion, citing what he said is “God’s creation” being sacred to merit legislation by mere mortal human beings. He appeared this morning on WFAA-TV’s “Inside Politics” program.

I will disagree with the gentleman. He doesn’t seem to take into account what happens to a child who is born with debilitating deformities. Who cannot care for herself or himself. Whose birth puts Mama’s health — and life — in jeopardy.

I offer those caveats as a pro-life Texas resident myself. I consider myself pro-life, however, I do not believe in legislating from afar whether a woman can take command of her own body or whether she must surrender her reproductive rights because some lawmaker in Austin forces her to do so.

Rep. Money is taking the seat once held by another right-wing extremist, Bryan Slaton, who was drummed out of the House because he got a female legislative staffer drunk as a skunk before having sex with her.

I am going out on a limb here, but I do not believe most Texans adhere to Money’s view that we need to ban all abortion, period.

There in could lie Texas lawmakers’ huge “challenge” as they prepare to convene their next session this week.

May the force of common sense and compassion be with all of them.