Texas Primaries

February 20

Early voting starts today. Primary day is March 5

Sample ballots for Travis County: https://elections.traviscountytx.gov/current-election-information/current-election/#polling-locations

Why it's interesting:

In Austin, we have our DA (Garza) with a challenger. Garza seems unpopular, but very little seems to have been covered about this race. I expect him to hold his seat, but hope he loses.
Statewide, Dems find their candidate to run against Cruz for Senate. The frontrunner seems to be Allred, with Gutierrez getting some votes.
Statewide, the civil war in the Republican party is about to have the next chapter. This would be great drama if it didn't involve our day-to-day lives. Abbott is going hard against people who voted against vouchers. Paxton is going hard against those who voted to impeach. Patrick/Paxton is going against Phelan. It's really scorched earth stuff to where if the incumbents keep the seat, the next session is going to be very, very interesting. The governor is popular among Republicans for the border stuff. The representatives are locally popular. I have no idea who comes out on top.

February 20

Just glancing through the Republican sample ballot and saw these "propositions." Might vote in the Republican primary just to screw with a number of these.

Proposition 1
Texas should eliminate all property taxes without increasing Texans’ overall tax burden.

Proposition 2
Texas should create a Border Protection Unit, and deploy additional state law enforcement and military forces, to seal the border, to use physical force to prevent illegal entry and trafficking, and to deport illegal aliens to Mexico or to their nations of origin

Proposition 3
The Texas Legislature should require the use of E-Verify by all employers in Texas to protect jobs for legal workers by preventing the hiring of illegal aliens.

Proposition 4
The Texas Legislature should end all subsidies and public services, including in-state college tuition and enrollment in public schools, for illegal aliens.

Proposition 5
Texas urges the United States Congress not to grant any form of amnesty or a pathway to legalization for illegal aliens.

Proposition 6
The Texas Legislature should prohibit the deployment of the Texas National Guard to a foreign conflict unless Congress first formally declares war.

Proposition 7
The Texas Legislature should establish authority within the Texas State Comptroller’s office to administer access to gold and silver through the Texas Bullion Depository for use as legal tender

Proposition 8
The State of Texas should ensure that Texans are free to give or to withhold consent for any vaccine without coercion.

Proposition 9
The Republican Party of Texas should restrict voting in the Republican primary to only registered Republicans

Proposition 10
The Texas Constitution should be amended to restore authority to the Texas Attorney General to prosecute election crimes.

Proposition 11
Texas parents and guardians should have the right to select schools, whether public or private, for their children, and the funding should follow the student.

Proposition 12
The Texas Constitution should be amended to require proof of citizenship before any individual can be registered to vote.

Js1 · February 20

Both Austin and Houston have contentious DA primaries on the Dem side. Both incumbents could lose.

tx 3 putt · February 20

Ill vote tomorrow

YGIFS · February 20

I honestly had no idea how many Democrats were on the ballot for U.S. Senate. i think it was 7 or 8. Wonderful use of resources.

1978horn · February 20

Challenger named Chevo Pastrano against Erin Zwiener in Hays county as well. In my part of Hays Dems are getting salty about it. Could be close.

Edited February 20 by 1978horn

atomheartbevo · February 20

3 hours ago, FirstTimeCaller said:

Statewide, the civil war in the Republican party is about to have the next chapter. This would be great drama if it didn't involve our day-to-day lives. Abbott is going hard against people who voted against vouchers. Paxton is going hard against those who voted to impeach. Patrick/Paxton is going against Phelan. It's really scorched earth stuff to where if the incumbents keep the seat, the next session is going to be very, very interesting. The governor is popular among Republicans for the border stuff. The representatives are locally popular. I have no idea who comes out on top.

If I had Soros money, I’d be funding this Republican civil war.

Brisketexan · February 20

Those of you in Travis County and surroundings, an important judicial recommendation in the judicial primary: vote Sherine Thomas for the 353rd District Court. Please. She's sharp, an experienced attorney, and very fair minded. She's also a damned good administrator (a big part of the job is keeping things moving along -- she will be excellent in that respect).

Gil Bang · February 20

6 minutes ago, Brisketexan said:

Those of you in Travis County and surroundings, an important judicial recommendation in the judicial primary: vote Sherine Thomas for the 353rd District Court. Please. She's sharp, an experienced attorney, and very fair minded. She's also a damned good administrator (a big part of the job is keeping things moving along -- she will be excellent in that respect).

I think I may have had this rant before: voting for judges is just fucking stupid. I consider myself a more educated voter than most, and I know jack shit about who to vote for for judge.

I tend to read their ads and statements, and vote against anybody that claims to be "tough on crime". I also tend to vote for defense attorneys over prosecutors. And that's dumb, because I have no way of knowing what it takes to be a good judge, and who has those qualities.

nbmishoid · February 20

Like much of life, dumb but not changeable

Brisketexan · February 20

Just now, Gil Bang said:

I think I may have had this rant before: voting for judges is just fucking stupid. I consider myself a more educated voter than most, and I know jack shit about who to vote for for judge.

I tend to read their ads and statements, and vote against anybody that claims to be "tough on crime". I also tend to vote for defense attorneys over prosecutors. And that's dumb, because I have no way of knowing what it takes to be a good judge, and who has those qualities.

Agreed. It's stupid. Shit, the statewide judicial races are just a good proxy for "what is the partisan breakdown of Texas voters." In 2020, it was about 53-44, in 2022 it was around 56-42.

And the attorneys who know these candidates share recommendations and endorsements and such (I regularly connect with probably a couple hundred people). It makes no difference. At all. People vote for the party. Or in primaries, they vote the name. Or in the 2020 primary, they voted gender (women were MAD....and in a judicial race featuring an incredibly respected male incumbent...he lost to a singularly unqualified female challenger, because, again....women were (understandably) MAD). That seat....was the 353rd. Let's fix that, please.

CTC2 · February 20

4 hours ago, FirstTimeCaller said:

Early voting starts today. Primary day is March 5

Sample ballots for Travis County: https://elections.traviscountytx.gov/current-election-information/current-election/#polling-locations

Why it's interesting:

In Austin, we have our DA (Garza) with a challenger. Garza seems unpopular, but very little seems to have been covered about this race. I expect him to hold his seat, but hope he loses.

Statewide, Dems find their candidate to run against Cruz for Senate. The frontrunner seems to be Allred, with Gutierrez getting some votes.

Statewide, the civil war in the Republican party is about to have the next chapter. This would be great drama if it didn't involve our day-to-day lives. Abbott is going hard against people who voted against vouchers. Paxton is going hard against those who voted to impeach. Patrick/Paxton is going against Phelan. It's really scorched earth stuff to where if the incumbents keep the seat, the next session is going to be very, very interesting. The governor is popular among Republicans for the border stuff. The representatives are locally popular. I have no idea who comes out on top.

Whats the guy running against Garza’s position on weed? Abandoning weed prosecutions is about the only thing I think Garza got right. Plus it pisses off Paxton.

South Austin · February 20

11 minutes ago, Brisketexan said:

Those of you in Travis County and surroundings, an important judicial recommendation in the judicial primary: vote Sherine Thomas for the 353rd District Court. Please. She's sharp, an experienced attorney, and very fair minded. She's also a damned good administrator (a big part of the job is keeping things moving along -- she will be excellent in that respect).

Ditto for Sherine. And same for Karin Crump who's running in the primary for a seat on the Austin Court of Appeals.

4 hours ago, Js1 said:

Both Austin and Houston have contentious DA primaries on the Dem side. Both incumbents could lose.

For what it's worth, in an Austin Bar Association Judicial Preference Poll, the votes in the Travis County District Attorney race were:

Jeremy Sylestine, 41.7%, 201 votes

Jose Garza, 37.1%, 179 votes

Not answered, 21.2%, 102 votes

Yeah, a small sample size of a relatively homogenous section of the electorate (all lawyers). But Garza should be sweating bullets, and I don't think new leadership can do much worse.

Brisketexan · February 20

Just now, South Austin said:

And same for Karin Crump who's running in the primary for a seat on the Austin Court of Appeals.

Man.....those appeals races bug me. Not that I don't think the challengers are qualified (they are -- I really like Crump). But the incumbents, Baker and Smith, have done plenty good in those roles. I see no reason why they need to be unseated. But, they likely will be.

bluto · February 20

Good lord that prop 1 is so idiocracy sounding.

kevwun · February 20

That's the worst Prop list they've come up with so far.

South Austin · February 20

4 minutes ago, Brisketexan said:

Man.....those appeals races bug me. Not that I don't think the challengers are qualified (they are -- I really like Crump). But the incumbents, Baker and Smith, have done plenty good in those roles. I see no reason why they need to be unseated. But, they likely will be.

I understand. Those incumbents agreed to run at a time when other more well-known, arguably more qualified, candidates decided to stay on the sidelines because nobody knew how the district would swing in the Trump era, and what do you know those guys won. So now it seems like the Democratic party machine is saying, "Hey guys, thank you for your service, but step aside for our hand-plucked candidates."

I don't think Karin's candidacy was entirely her idea, but here she is, and I've known her for a while and supported her when she first ran for judge, so I'm giving her my plug (since I guess that's what we're doing here).

Js1 · February 20

I'm shocked they didn't go full Arizona GOP

Proposition 1: Donald Trump is the winner of the 2024 election, regardless of result. And he won the 2020 and 2016 elections by the biggest margins in history.

pyrohornIII · February 20

4 hours ago, YGIFS said:

I honestly had no idea how many Democrats were on the ballot for U.S. Senate. i think it was 7 or 8. Wonderful use of resources.

I have met and visited with the bulk of those. Allred, Gonzalez and Hassan are the ones I haven't met. I'll preface it to say that ANY of them would be better than Cruz. While there's not a nutcase in the bunch, there's a definite horse race at the top. I don't know why some of these good people wouldn't run for smaller races like House districts or Congressional Districts. But I guess they feel the need to cut their teeth on something, might as well be the biggest bone. T

Sadly, there is no mechanism in place to build a bench, which is what we need. There are different camps, but not one central alliance that charts a course. I won't deny there are power players, particularly in DC that push money into certain campaigns, but again there's not a lot of Texas influence going into those decisions. We are seeing that in the Senate race.

MonkeyDoughnut · February 20

What's the catch on them listing Prop 3 for E-Verify? It has wide support on both sides of the aisles, but I feel like it's been buried from the top for years now. What's different now?

Js1 · February 20

1 minute ago, MonkeyDoughnut said:

What's the catch on them listing Prop 3 for E-Verify? It has wide support on both sides of the aisles, but I feel like it's been buried from the top for years now. What's different now?

Bob Perry was probably the biggest opponent for a long time and a BMD. Ain’t profitable to build houses with legal labor. He’s been dead 10 years.

Brisketexan · February 20

22 minutes ago, pyrohornIII said:

There are different camps, but not one central alliance that charts a course. I won't deny there are power players, particularly in DC that push money into certain campaigns, but again there's not a lot of Texas influence going into those decisions. We are seeing that in the Senate race.

Maddening. The Texas Dem party needs to fucking put together an actual strategy, with actual cogent leadership exercising it. They did so once, long ago. They need to do so again.

Pescado_Rojo · February 20

19 minutes ago, pyrohornIII said:

I have met and visited with the bulk of those. Allred, Gonzalez and Hassan are the ones I haven't met. I'll preface it to say that ANY of them would be better than Cruz. While there's not a nutcase in the bunch, there's a definite horse race at the top. I don't know why some of these good people wouldn't run for smaller races like House districts or Congressional Districts. But I guess they feel the need to cut their teeth on something, might as well be the biggest bone. T

Sadly, there is no mechanism in place to build a bench, which is what we need. There are different camps, but not one central alliance that charts a course. I won't deny there are power players, particularly in DC that push money into certain campaigns, but again there's not a lot of Texas influence going into those decisions. We are seeing that in the Senate race.

One of my biggest pet peeves with Texas Democrats. Every time someone gets a little bit of exposure they run for an office about 2 slots higher up the ladder than they should. Hey, I know you had that tweet that went viral a couple months ago, but why do you think 75,000 "likes" qualifies you to run for the senate? How about a House district? Or better yet a county commissioners seat?

Brisketexan · February 20

3 minutes ago, Pescado_Rojo said:

One of my biggest pet peeves with Texas Democrats. Every time someone gets a little bit of exposure they run for an office about 2 slots higher up the ladder than they should. Hey, I know you had that tweet that went viral a couple months ago, but why do you think 75,000 "likes" qualifies you to run for the senate? How about a House district? Or better yet a county commissioners seat?

Yep. The GQP is developing that bench. Granted, it's a bench of batshit crazy suburban moms running for school board seats who shoplift from Target and fuck the poolboy while their husbands watch....but still, it's a bench.

TexPx · February 20

District 12

tokamak · February 20

For those of you elsewhere in Texas, the Houston area has several interesting primaries happening on the D side:

US Rep Lizzie Fletcher (TX-7) is getting a well-funded challenge from progressive activist Pervez Agwan. There's been some allegations of abuse within Agwan's campaign which has caused a lot of groups to back off, but he was a darling of the left for a hot minute and has spent a bunch of money.
Sheila Jackson-Lee is getting her toughest primary challenge in a long time from Amanda Edwards. Edwards had been seen as somewhat of a rising star in Houston politics, but dropped out of the mayoral race when SJL entered, endorsed her, and announced a run for her House seat. If SJL had won the mayor spot, Edwards would be a shoe-in for this race, but she lost, so here we are.
State Senate District 15 (my district) is having a competitive open primary between 6 candidates. This was John Whitmire's long time seat that he resigned after he won the Houston mayor election. I have no idea who the frontrunner is, I've been getting mail and texts from almost all of the candidates.
Unpopular DA Kim Ogg is being challeneged by her former deputy Sean Teare. Ogg has managed to piss off basically everyone in town and it looks quite possible that she'll lose.

Js1 · February 20

18 minutes ago, tokamak said:

State Senate District 15 (my district) is having a competitive open primary between 6 candidates. This was John Whitmire's long time seat that he resigned after he won the Houston mayor election. I have no idea who the frontrunner is, I've been getting mail and texts from almost all of the candidates.

Interesting. I’ve only gotten mail from Litton. Nothing from Cook

Also Lizzie has done nothing to lose the vote. Agwan seems scummy

Born to Run · February 20

What's the catch on them listing Prop 3 for E-Verify? It has wide support on both sides of the aisles, but I feel like it's been buried from the top for years now. What's different now?

That feels like a dog catches car situation for the GOP. Wealthy donors will have unintended consequences coming.

Ghost of LL · February 20

2 hours ago, South Austin said:

Ditto for Sherine. And same for Karin Crump who's running in the primary for a seat on the Austin Court of Appeals.

I mean, sure--if you're a Republican.

Putting Judge Crump on the Court of Appeals means that her seat on the district court bench becomes vacant. Abbott would fill that. And you know he would fill it with the most loony-toons GQP nutter the Office of the Attorney General has to offer.

Karin Crump is a good district judge. Keep her there. Keep Tom Baker on the Court of Appeals. Keep Abbott's loony MAGAt off the Travis County bench.

Pods · February 20

6 hours ago, FirstTimeCaller said:

Proposition 1
Texas should eliminate all property taxes without increasing Texans’ overall tax burden.

Proposition 2
Texas should create a Border Protection Unit, and deploy additional state law enforcement and military forces, to seal the border, to use physical force to prevent illegal entry and trafficking, and to deport illegal aliens to Mexico or to their nations of origin

Proposition 1
We don't want to pay taxes.

Proposition 2
But we also want the state to create a giant law enforcement and military apparatus, big enough to seal a 1,254 mile border.

Js1 · February 20

Just now, Pods said:

Proposition 1
We don't want to pay taxes.

Proposition 2
But we also want the state to create a giant law enforcement and military apparatus, big enough to seal a 1,254 mile border.

They’ll just finish off defunding public ed in Texas entirely and use that

pyrohornIII · February 20

1 hour ago, tokamak said:

For those of you elsewhere in Texas, the Houston area has several interesting primaries happening on the D side:

US Rep Lizzie Fletcher (TX-7) is getting a well-funded challenge from progressive activist Pervez Agwan. There's been some allegations of abuse within Agwan's campaign which has caused a lot of groups to back off, but he was a darling of the left for a hot minute and has spent a bunch of money.

Sheila Jackson-Lee is getting her toughest primary challenge in a long time from Amanda Edwards. Edwards had been seen as somewhat of a rising star in Houston politics, but dropped out of the mayoral race when SJL entered, endorsed her, and announced a run for her House seat. If SJL had won the mayor spot, Edwards would be a shoe-in for this race, but she lost, so here we are.

State Senate District 15 (my district) is having a competitive open primary between 6 candidates. This was John Whitmire's long time seat that he resigned after he won the Houston mayor election. I have no idea who the frontrunner is, I've been getting mail and texts from almost all of the candidates.

Unpopular DA Kim Ogg is being challeneged by her former deputy Sean Teare. Ogg has managed to piss off basically everyone in town and it looks quite possible that she'll lose.

And the incumbent Shawn Thierry in HD 146 needs to go. She's our own little Sinema. All her funding comes for far right groups. She's a blight. Lauren Ashley Simmons is the right person for that seat.

Edited February 21 by pyrohornIII
Shawn, not Sean. my dumb ass.

Js1 · February 20

13 minutes ago, pyrohornIII said:

And the incumbent Sean Thierry in HD 146 needs to go. She's our own little Sinema. All her funding comes for far right groups. She's a blight. Lauren Ashley Simmons is the right person for that seat.

Dumbass couldn’t stop herself from spewing a bunch of homophobic stuff during the chron editorial meeting

Brisketexan · February 20

31 minutes ago, Pods said:

Proposition 1
We don't want to pay taxes.

Proposition 2
But we also want the state to create a giant law enforcement and military apparatus, big enough to seal a 1,254 mile border.

Duh. They're gonna get MEXICO to pay for it!

hornmpa96 · February 21

31 minutes ago, pyrohornIII said:

And the incumbent Sean Thierry in HD 146 needs to go. She's our own little Sinema. All her funding comes for far right groups. She's a blight. Lauren Ashley Simmons is the right person for that seat.

Yep - I will be voting in my first D primary ever to vote against her.

royiv · February 21

1 hour ago, Js1 said:

Interesting. I’ve only gotten mail from Litton. Nothing from Cook

Also Lizzie has done nothing to lose the vote. Agwan seems scummy

Molly stopped by my house a couple of weeks ago. I had met her before when she was running against Whitmire in the last election. She already had my vote, but really formed it up when we talked again. I see a ton of her yard signs in my neighborhood FWIW and not much from Litton.

My wife and I voted this afternoon at the West Gray Multi-Service Center and Agwan was there and he was SUPER aggressive trying to get in our face. I always try to be polite to candidates and volunteers at polling places as I’ve done those volunteer shifts myself, but he took it to the next level and was screaming stuff as us even as we walked away and got to the entrance. It really rubbed me the wrong way. Based on that interaction, it demonstrated that he’s too immature to serve in Congress and, as you stated, Lizzie hasn’t done anything to warrant being replaced.

Pods · February 21

11 minutes ago, Brisketexan said:

Duh. They're gonna get MEXICO to pay for it!

They have plenty of Coke Cartel money, thanks to American consumer demand.

It's the ugly truth that we need to face as a nation.

Hard working American Coca-Cola, fueled by American corn syrup, can't compete with sugar powered Mexican Cokes.

Bozo_Casanova · February 21

2 hours ago, Brisketexan said:

Yep. The GQP is developing that bench. Granted, it's a bench of batshit crazy suburban moms running for school board seats who shoplift from Target and fuck the poolboy while their husbands watch....but still, it's a bench.

Edit- responded to the wrong thing

Edited February 21 by Bozo_Casanova

Bozo_Casanova · February 21

7 hours ago, FirstTimeCaller said:

roposition 6
The Texas Legislature should prohibit the deployment of the Texas National Guard to a foreign conflict unless Congress first formally declares war.

I am 100% OK with this one.

chainsaw · February 21

1 hour ago, Ghost of LL said:

I mean, sure--if you're a Republican.

Putting Judge Crump on the Court of Appeals means that her seat on the district court bench becomes vacant. Abbott would fill that. And you know he would fill it with the most loony-toons GQP nutter the Office of the Attorney General has to offer.

Karin Crump is a good district judge. Keep her there. Keep Tom Baker on the Court of Appeals. Keep Abbott's loony MAGAt off the Travis County bench.

Abbott filled a seat in San Antonio recently

Brisketexan · February 21

2 minutes ago, Bozo_Casanova said:

I am 100% OK with this one.

Question....since the governor has declared what is happening at the border an "invasion," and that "invasion" emanates from a foreign country....wouldn't that bar the governor from deploying the national guard to the Texas border in such cases?

Bozo_Casanova · February 21

28 minutes ago, Brisketexan said:

Question....since the governor has declared what is happening at the border an "invasion," and that "invasion" emanates from a foreign country....wouldn't that bar the governor from deploying the national guard to the Texas border in such cases?

Will no one rid me of this turbulent priest?

F250 · February 21

2 hours ago, TexPx said:

District 12

That dude looks like someone that runs an herbal viagra and testosterone supplement business.

Hugo Stiglitz · February 21

chainsaw · February 21

Did he get his credentials from the same place Rand Paul did

TDunk · February 21

2 minutes ago, Hugo Stiglitz said:

Damn beat me by a minute

Js1 · February 21

2 minutes ago, chainsaw said:

Did he get his credentials from the same place Rand Paul did

Hollywood Upstairs Medical College?

StassneyHorn · February 21

If you are in Houston, please vote for my girlfriend Amanda Edwards instead of SJL.

Js1 · February 21

6 minutes ago, StassneyHorn said:

If you are in Houston, please vote for my girlfriend Amanda Edwards instead of SJL.

I’m a little miffed the LGBT caucus in Houston endorsed SJL. Def going against that one

Bozo_Casanova · February 21

16 minutes ago, chainsaw said:

Did he get his credentials from the same place Rand Paul did

PSA: multiple people on Etsy are selling Hollywood Upstairs Medical College T-shirts.

Edited February 21 by Bozo_Casanova

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