After-Primary Morning

James Talarico and Jasmine Crockett are two good politicians who are trying to solve the riddle of winning in Texas in their own way. Talarico won, but I hope we see Crockett again in our politics. She was treated with the usual disrespect that any talented Democratic politician under the age of 60 is treated in the hierarchical gerontocracy of the House, and that’s a god damned shame.

The most important race for Democrats in Texas is the Republican Senate primary, and that’s going to run off. Republicans have spent infinity millions of dollars on that race to try to prop up Cornyn. I’m no expert on Texas politics, but Paxton seems like a better opponent, so fingers crossed on that one.

I was listening to the Down Ballot (formerly Daily Kos elections) pre-primary podcast and they made the point that Texas isn’t a Republican or Democratic state, it’s a low turnout state. So this was interesting (Walker County’s county seat is Huntsville, total population 76,000):

The other interesting Republican Texas race that’s going to a runoff is the House seat in TX-23, which is a rural district encompassing Big Bend. Tony Gonzales, a horrible human being whose affair with an aide led to her suicide by self-immolation, is being challenged by “gunfluencer” Brandon Herrera in a district that Trump took by 57-42 in 2024. I guess the MAGAts in that district were spoiled for choice and couldn’t decide which piece of shit they wanted to run in the Fall.

The Down Ballot has the rest of the results. One notable example of “primaries are hard” is NC-4, a D+23 election. The incumbent is Valerie Foushee, who got AIPAC money last cycle, also got bitcoin money, and apparently can’t bring herself to oppose data centers in the district. She seems to be a pretty good example of someone who’s not as liberal as the district, but she’s current leading her more progressive challenger Nida Allam in a race that might go to recount.