If you haven't voted in the runoff yet, here's a good reason to vote, Part 2

HEY. ELECTION DAY IS TUESDAY. PLEASE PARTICIPATE.

In a state with 18 million registered voters, only 800,000 of them had voted leading up to the final day of early voting on Friday. Yeah. It’s abysmal. Particularly when you consider the statewide choices on the Republican side, who range from “well, maybe Trump has gone a little too far on immigration” to absolute batshit insanity from people unfit to hold a statewide office. And how is it that the Cornyn v. Paxton Senate race isn’t setting turnout records?

I’ll never understand not voting, but I can’t let myself get too upset about it. I can scream into the void or I can try to educate and remind and remind again. To quote “The Show Must Not Go On” by Harvey Danger:

You can bash your head against a wall forever
The wall will never change
But if you start to like the bloody bruises
The wall cannot be blamed

The reason I’m here with another plea to vote on Tuesday is to talk about one statewide office in the Democratic runoff that I think is really important: Attorney General.

Finally, we’re getting rid of Ken Paxton, but that man has poisoned the AG’s office and our politics so badly that the Republican options in the runoff are somehow more terrifying. Chip Roy is your run-of-the-mill Republican asshole cowboy who wants to grind immigrants into dust. Mayes Middleton is a terrifying Christian nationalist oil-and-gas trust-fund baby dressed up in a tailored suit and a haunting, prim grin. I’m probably more afraid of Middleton, to be honest.

Republican state Sen. Mayes Middleton, who is running for Texas attorney general, has been at the forefront of the latter fight. The candidate used Talarico to illustrate the point when Middleton himself spoke at CPAC.

“He’s a lunatic by the way,” Middleton said. “And this guy claims to be a pastor, and he said it’s un-Christian and un-American to put the Ten Commandments in schools. So, what was my response to that? I donated Ten Commandments posters to the schools in his district and gave them in his honor. He didn’t like that very much.”

Martin said the attorney general’s race illustrates how some candidates are testing just how far religion can be translated into actual state power.

“That office turns ideology, ideas, into lawsuits, into legal opinions, into governing power,” Martin said.

That circles back to Patrick’s claim, as chair of the Religious Liberty Commission, that the separation of church and state is not in the Constitution. Patrick’s statement that the commission would, in May, issue recommendations to “ensure that Americans’ religious liberty is safeguarded against evil forces” has been removed from the commission’s website.

Shudder. Dan Patrick is backing Middleton in the race, of course.

Anyway, either of these wingnuts would likely be more effective than Ken Paxton, whose wild sex life, bald-faced corruption and desire to become a national public figure made the office kind of useless. Great at putting out press releases that create sensational headlines because that was really the only point; they were meant to create sensational headlines for Donald Trump to see on his little social media website. A more disciplined Republican AG could do even more damage than we’ve seen.

The Democratic runoff is between state Senator Nathan Johnson from Dallas and former Galveston mayor Joe Jaworski, and I firmly believe Nathan Johnson is the right man to go up against whichever ghoul the Republicans put up. He has been endorsed by our state’s major newspapers and plenty of trusted organizations.

Sidenote: both of the Democrats in the runoff actually have law degrees. Only one Republican does, that’s Chip Roy.

I can understand if you just see two white men and think “eh, I’ll just sit this one out.” Frankly, I might also have no opinion about this race if I hadn’t watched Johnson debate Republicans on the floor during last year’s legislative session. This isn’t something many people have time or the stomach to do, and that’s why I did that for you. And will probably do again for the 2027 session, given that I may never be fully employed again in my life. Thanks, AI.

Please don’t sit this one out, though. I urge you to make time on Tuesday to vote for Nathan Johnson. Here is just one example of him taking on Mayes Middleton on a bill about “religious freedom” and the “porn in schools” panic that has led to countless school-board fights over the past couple of years.

Indeed, Johnson is quite accustomed to dealing with Middleton’s whining. Another instance can be viewed here.

I hope I have convinced someone out there to go vote on Tuesday!