Texans head to the polls today!
The article is fairly long and comprehensive so I won’t quote it all. I know we already have a thread about the Beto O’Rourke/Ted Cruz face-off (still potential at this point, eh), but I thought it might be good to have a thread about the Texas primaries in general since there’s a lot going on.
Polls close at 7pm, btw.
Is there a lot going on?
I don’t think there are that many interesting primaries today and most of the interesting questions I have about Texas politics won’t be answered until November. There’s a dem house primary that got a little heated and some Bush spawn might get primaried out of his land commissioner job, but other than that I don’t know what else there is.
Which primary races are you most closely following?
My guess is that the interest lies more in what the actual turnout is. If (as has been suggested), there is a much higher turnout in the Democratic primaries, people might form conclusions about the direction of the fall elections.
People are going to (wrongly) make a big deal about Dem turnout. Greater enthusiasm eight months ahead of the big dance is nice, but unless it can be maintained it means precisely diddly poo.
Count me in as one the voters who turned out for the Democratic primary. In my district the main race I’m interested in is for the 27th congressional district. Both the Ds and Rs have interesting races to see who will replace the retiring Blake Farenthold. I have hope that the district can be turned blue.
TX-27 has an interesting history. It has only had two congressmen since it’s been created. Solomon Ortiz represented it for like 30 years and then lost to Farenthold in the 2010 wave by 799 votes. After that the Republicans redrew the lines to make it safer for Farenthold who won by double digits in the three subsequent elections.
TX-27 is on the ambitious end of what is possible for Dems in 2018 if everything goes right.
Who do you support, FlikTheBlue? If you don’t mind my asking.
True, but it is a good thing if the Democrats can get into the voting habit. That’s especially true in Texas with its very low turnout in general elections. It has been a one party state for so long.
Are there really Congressional seats where one of the major parties doesn’t bother to put up a candidate?
Yes. Scroll down to #2 here: 53 House seats were uncontested in 2016. ETA: 28 held by the GOP, 25 held by Dems.
The Texas Trib thinks the races in 11 Congressional districts are interesting, and at the bottom of that link, there’s a link to a story on 38 state legislature primaries worth watching. (Not knowing shit about Texas, that was deeper than I was going to dig.)
Dave Wasserman of the Cook Political Report says if you’re going to follow Texas politics, you need to be following Abby Livingston (@texastribabby). Abby retweeted this tweet about whose Twitter streams to follow tonight if you’re following the races at various levels.
I’ll probably check in briefly on some of that stuff before I go to bed, since 7pm CST = 8pm EST, which is still before my bedtime, though not by much anymore. But for the most part, I’ll find out what happened after I wake up tomorrow.
I’m supporting Eric Holguin. In addition to liking his positions on the issues I like his youth and energy and the positive way he’s run his campaign. The other candidates are mostly people who have run several times in the past and either lost in the primaries or in blowout losses to Farenthold in the general. I think he has the best chance of beating the Republican nominee (who I assume is probably going to be Bech Bruun).
Doesn’t look like that turnout miracle is happening. Only about a third of the vote is in, but it looks like more than 1.5 R votes for every D vote. There weren’t too many exciting races on the R side so I’m not sure why it’s going down like this.
That was my reaction too, Patrick. In a parliamentary system I can’t imagine an uncontested seat in a general election.
The thing is, in the US system, the parties don’t put up candidates to run in each seat. An individual decides to run as a Democrat or Republican, say, in a particular district. If nobody wants to run as a Democrat in one district (maybe because there simply aren’t very many Democrats in that district), then there will be no Democratic candidate in that race.
This also means: If I say I’m a Republican, then I’m a Republican for ballot purposes even if the Republican Party says I’m not a Republican. This is very different from the way parties work in most other countries, I think.
So a fantastic turnout and some decent races now set up. Democrats have a low bar to cross for success, really, but it’s still a tough row to hoe. Will they succeed?
Not yet, most likely. The Texas Republicans have dug themselves deep into the infrastructure of Texas. Voter suppression has no warmer home. So, no, a sudden wave of change just isn’t in the cards. But hope? Ah. That. The first crack in the wall will be small. But it looks like its here. Not the beginning of the end, but maybe the end of the beginning.
Full results here. Like I said earlier, I don’t know shit about Texas politics, and since these are primary results, I really can’t make head or tail of them. (Run out and get me a four year old child…:))
I found one interesting result. The TX-02 Republican primary to see who will likely fill retiring Ted Poe’s seat featured Kathaleen Wall who pretty much outspent all other house candidates in the state (by a lot).
R ✓ Kevin Roberts 15,236 33.0%
R ✓ Dan Crenshaw 12,644 27.4
R Kathaleen Wall 12,499 27.1
Top two finishers go to a runoff.
It couldn’t have happened to a nicer lady. SEE IT: Congressional candidate airs ad of her firing rifle 24 hours after mass shooting – New York Daily News
Block that metaphor! 