Thank god that's over

It’s the day after another election day here in Houston, and it has been gray, cool and rainy. A perfect day for introspection. To quietly sit with our thoughts and consider how we are going to organize and OH MY GOD WHAT IS THIS

So much for that.

Ken Paxton finally sent a fully-debased John Cornyn to whatever lobbying group or corporate board will take him. Republicans celebrated by being stupid bullies all day on social.

I don’t know how you respond to this sort of thing gracefully (my inclination as a communicator would be to ignore it, but I realize that’s a position that is becoming harder and harder to defend) but here comes the Democrats’ official Twitter account in response.

Everything is going great.

Locally, though, we had a couple of nice wins. Poor Christian Menefee can finally stop running for office now that he has won the runoff against Al Green. And SURPRISE: Leticia Plummer eked out a win over Annise Parker for Harris County Judge! Even though I advocated for it, I didn’t expect it to happen.

Plummer will be running against (ugh, you again?) Republican Orlando Sanchez. Plummer winning is definitely not a sure bet given that Greg Abbott has tens of millions of campaign dollars at his disposal and is obsessed with turning Harris County red. And I suspect the fact that Plummer is Muslim is going to inspire really grim dark-money attack ads and messaging, so prepare yourselves.

Not gonna lie, I’m also gleeful that awful Alex Mealer sent Briscoe Cain’s congressional hopes into the toilet. She will be going up against Democrat Leticia Gutierrez in the general for the Trump-demanded-redrawn TX-9 that effectively removed Al Green from office.

From Gutierrez’s website:

For 45 years, Leticia has lived in this district. She attended Milby High School and later graduated from the University of St. Thomas with a degree in finance.

Her reason for running to represent Congressional District 9 is simple: she cannot stand by while the community that raised her is targeted and pushed aside. Leticia knows firsthand the false narratives often used to describe immigrants—that they are criminals or a drain on the economy. Her lived experience tells a different story. Like her family, immigrants work hard, pay taxes, start businesses, and keep critical industries running.

Here’s what the new TX-9 looks like:

Under its new lines, the 9th District would have voted for Trump by a 19-point margin in 2024. But the leftward drift of Hispanic voters, who narrowly make up a majority of the district’s eligible voting population, has convinced some Democrats they can make a run for the seat in November.

The district takes in parts of Houston’s heavily Hispanic East End and cities in the eastern part of Harris County, including Baytown, Deer Park and Pasadena. Solidly Republican Liberty County was also tacked onto the district.

Pasadena/Deer Park is where I grew up, so I know the area well. I know the smells. I know the asthma and cancer rates. Putting these voters in the same district as Liberty County was exceedingly dirty business. Alex Mealer, on the other hand, lives in a posh house in the Heights. I don’t understand the rules. She apparently said she’d move to the district back in January but hasn’t. I guess it’s just whatever these days.

You can find Leticia Gutierrez on Instagram and Facebook if you’d like to support her candidacy! I think we should!

A note on rejecting doomer-ism

I posted last night that I believe Texas Democrats have been handed a win by Republicans choosing opponents like Ken Paxton, Bo French and Mayes Middleton. These are deeply terrible, corrupt people, guys! But I still got some, “yeah, I dunno” pushback. I don’t know what the point of that is. We have a moment here and if your initial response is, “I’m not seeing it,” then what do you need to motivate you? You might need to check if your internal pilot light is out.

The discourse is going to be endless the next few months. It’s going to be nasty. It’s going to be dumb, if not incoherent. It’s going to be “is Texas really in play?” nonstop until you want to run through a window. There will be polls. There will be so many polls.

Tune it out. It’s none of your business. Find SOMETHING that you can do. And dudes, I am not talking about donating money, though that is a fun thing that wealthier people can do! Please do that! Go to candidates’ events. Talk about them on social. Meet them. Block walk with them. Go to rallies. Be with your people so that you can feel something again.

Anyway, I guess I’m back here. Thanks for reading. I don’t think I’ll turn on paid subs again, but we’ll see.