I have returned, learning nothing

I left a job yesterday. I sent my final invoice tonight. Six months of hard work supporting an unknown candidate running for governor. What a huge swing. For all of us! There was a team and we believed and we ran and we ran and I ran a lot. But yesterday was a “you can’t fire me, I quit” situation, so I quit. I’ve been let go enough in my life, I wasn’t waiting around for it.

In these past six months I have been laser-focused on what is happening statewide. Greg Abbott is a power-bloated ghoul, more than ever before. Ken Paxton and John Cornyn are the girls fighting on Twitter, but you probably don’t know that because almost no one is on Twitter anymore. I don’t know who will win the Democratic primary for Senate, but it’d better be Talarico and I hope we can turn him into the superhero he needs to be in order to meet the final boss. (I recommend a stylist, first of all.)

I am definitely cynical, but everything about 2026 in Texas is not working for me. And that’s awful because flipping some offices seems closer than ever before. I am also very tired and need a very long break from everything.

The deadline to run for office is Dec. 8, if you happen to live in a place with no one running in the Democratic primary for whatever office. Go for it. Nothing to lose. Print some zines. Pass them out. Do weird shit. Record it. Post it everywhere.

Because you know what the future of political communications appears to be? AI. ChatGPT. I can absolutely tell that someone is posting tweets for Gina Hinojosa that are all just ChatGPT bites of her talking points. There’s nothing there. I also hate the brand colors. Like, they really bother me.

Be a Christian Menefee. Get exhausted on camera doing silly things for your community. Be colorful. Be bold.

I started this year terrified that I would never work again in political social media, but it has been a really fruitful year overall. No AI can replace authentic communications, but it’s certainly trying to fool you into it. The most interesting takeaway from my time on a campaign this year was that the most followers we gained were from video-based social channels. And the best videos were just talking to a camera, using an authentic voice, telling it like it is. Produced as best as one can using some tools bought off Amazon. Nothing fancy or well-lit or overly produced.

That’s what people want, and it’s what breaks through the noise. Be in a voter’s dining room talking to them.

I will spend the next couple of months again terrified that my work is done, that AI has replaced me, that my husband will have to support me as I lay in bed every day, air-typing “Greg Abbott is a nightmare” on a keyboard in a half-asleep state, getting up only to work out, to keep my body limber enough to flee when the next flood comes to find us.

Ha ha is this too dark? Well, welcome back to Bayou City Sludge.