Just wanted to encourage everyone to get out and vote. Early voting ends tomorrow. Last year was the first year I voted in a primary, voted for Bernie, and since then I've been flooded with mail from Democratic candidates. What a strange experience. Some of it was helpful though to figure out where people stand. Got my votes in today. Go VOTE!
Same here, being bombarded with outreach from the 10,000 candidates shooting for Culberson's spot. Any goodwill I could have felt for any of them has been completely drained from me. Makes me want to not vote in primaries (but I'm still going to for some reason).
A Democrat no one's heard of just raised triple the amount Ted Cruz did, despite rejecting special interest money http://www.businessinsider.com/beto-orourke-outraised-ted-cruz-special-interest-money-2018-2
Went and voted in the Republican primary this morning. I honestly don't care which Democrat wins the opportunity to get slaughtered in the general, so I figured I'd start helping Republicans be more responsible about picking their candidates. It was also nice to go through all the Republican platform questions to try to moderate some of their worst excesses (that bathroom nonsense is still hanging around). if this primary season is any indication, I expect I'll get a ton of texts from both Democrat and Republican candidates next time around. Even just walking to the voting booth, I talked with 6 boosters and collected 9 brochures (all Democrats, I didn't have the heart to tell them I wasn't pulling a Democrat ballot this time).
Just voted. As we drove into the church parking lot they started converging on the car... two or three different "patriot" groups trying to give us suggested ballots with the suggestion that the other's might not reflect "our" votes. My wife grabbed a sheet, I showed them my filled-out sample Democratic Party ballot and they said, "Oh, he's a Democrat." One did say it was good to be an informed voter. One candidate for judge reached out after we parked. My wife said she was voting for him. I smiled at him. Nice enough guy, may vote for him in the General. At the registration table you had to point to a card that said Democrat or Republican. I was the only one that pointed to my card. The lady helping my wife laughed when my wife said "the other card". The guy at the D table gave me a paper with info about the Democratic party convention. Sure... why not? Probably being held in a small room. Took me half as long to vote than my wife. Fewer candidates, and she always takes longer. I've always lived in counties with heavy republican majority, so used to casting votes for the underdogs. But I figure I can't complain if I don't vote.
So much handwringing and hoping from Democrats that the Trump effect could help them win a governorship or a senate seat. Please. Democrats are not going to win a state-wide election in 2018. The thing I'm interested in, and where a little progress could be plausibly made, is whether the overwhelming majorities that Republicans have in the state senate and state house can be made slightly less overwhelming. Remember, if it wasn't for Speaker Strauss, we'd have a bathroom law right now, and Austin and Dallas wouldn't even be on Amazon's short list. Strauss will be gone, but if some districts on the margin flip blue, it'll give the crazies among the Republicans a little less room to do crazy stuff. Even if the Trump effect means incrementally more traditional Republicans beat Trump Republicans in the primary and go on to keep their district red, that still helps.
As much as us democrats would like O'Rourke to beat Cruz, I don't think any realistically think that will happen, nor will any of the other state-wide candidates. Too many right-leaning people, and Democrats aren't helped district lines designed to protect republicans. Heck, even in the new community that I live in... there is one precinct that was carefully carved out to put the wealthier folks in the new district (that also benefited from having its polling location inside the community) while the folks like me on the "poor side of town" had to drive seven miles into another town to vote. btw, seems to me my wife's sample ballot had a bathroom proposition on it... guessing it easily passed and will show up on the general election ballot. Betting it passes too...
Do the Hispanics in Texas mostly vote GOP or at least a large percentage of them do? I thought Texas is the first state where White people are not the majority.
I'm so happy Donna Dukes is out in Austin. She has been one of the worse state reps for the last few sessions.
Yes, the Republican primary asked a number of things about what should be part of the Texas Republican platform, and bathroom regulation was one proposition. It's not like a ballot measure that would show up in the general just because it wins the primary though. It's just an opinion poll. I haven't been able to find the results, though I suppose it's easy to suppose they all carried (despite my votes against).
