Texas Democrat James Talarico May Be on Track to Turn the Lone Star State Blue
https://www.vanityfair.com/story/texas-big-blue-stormOpen linkView original on lemmy.today401
Comments101https://www.vanityfair.com/story/texas-big-blue-stormOpen linkView original on lemmy.today
"X to turn Texas State Blue" has to be the most reused political headline of all time.
It translates to "Texas has a massive media markets and consultants get 20% on when they sell an ad-buy on behalf of a candidate, so lets throw money at Texas because it makes us more money" when you translate it to DNC consultant.
It's not turning anything until we get rid of Abbott, Patrick, and Paxton. Best Talarico can do is one of those three. This state is so fucked up. Our elections are fucked.
I moved from Austin to Jackson Hole, Wyoming after 23 years there. Wyoming is still red, but at least they leave me the fuck alone. Texas is always all up in your shit.
Especially for a state that's supposed to be all about rugged individualism, they can't stay out of your pants
There is next to 0 public land in Texas too, people like to compare it to the western states and its just wrong. The state of small government (for corporations and civil protections)
And we're supposed to be fervent conservationists with respect for our parks and wildlife, but you can't eat a fish you catch here without getting poisoned by 20 kinds of chemicals
Username checks out.
Hey, at least it's not AngryRedSnapper
I'm sorry.
There is a great line in the book "The Right Stuff" that says basically that. Houston was a hellhole in the 50s and all that which made ot that way has gotten worse or not gone away since then. All the mercury and dioxins are still in the silt in the San Jascinto river or Galveston Bay, or in your fresh gulf shrimp (sponsored by BP and TransOcean)
And they have made further repeals of environmental protective laws here in recent years, courting the likes of SpaceX and AI data centers
Near 0 federal public land. Texas has a lot of state land, and the Land Commissioner is a powerful statewide elected office.
This situation is a result of the terms of the 1845 accession when the Republic of Texas entered the Union.
Wyoming has the money to leave it's people alone.
Talarico is running against Paxton for which is going to replace Cornyn.
Gina Hinojosa is running against Abbott, the limited polling so far has her losing by 3-8%. Which is within striking distance depending on what else goes on. I would assume that if Hinojosa wins, Vikki Goodwin will beat Patrick.
This is nice. We have to win harder than they can cheat.
https://texaspublicopinionresearch.substack.com/p/new-poll-james-talarico-leads-ken
State wide elections go first, and you get a situation like Georgia where the at large elections can go either way but the state legislature and congressional delegation are still gerrymandered to hell for Republicans.
Then you get a tipping point like Virginia when the state legislature goes blue and then it's a blue state, and you can finally work to get some problems resolved.
The problem with fucking idiots is that they’re always fucking other fucking idiots and creating more fucken fucking idiots!
For a visual version, this process is graphically explained in the first few minutes of the documentary Idiocracy.
And strangely enough I could only watch about 15 or 20 minutes of it and couldn’t watch anymore. And let me add I was a HUGE B&B fan!
That about sums up my life experience.
I hear it about as much as I hear about the year of the Linux desktop.
I think it's neat. Talacrio is a genuine progressive -- him running is a breath of fresh air
Imagine people getting fired up to vote for someone they who they don't have to hold their nose for -- that's what hope feels like
It's because I think the GOP has all the voting machines rigged, so doesn't matter who people vote for only GOP can win in any major election in Texas. So this guy will not get elected. Even if everyone in Texas votes for him.
Sure they do.
Take my click!
The font boost defaults to puts the "c"s way too close the "l"s to make it seem like one letter.
So when I read your comment fast, I just thought to myself "alright, I can dig the energy. But you do you homie."
( ͡~ ͜ʖ ͡°)
Doubt it, I'm not convinced Texas has three brain cells to share amongst themselves. They've had stronger candidates than Talarico in the past and still re-elected Cancun Cruz.
...Working as intended.
As a Californian who's only ever used paper ballots this confuses and disgusts me. I wish to do a march to the sea.
I first started complaining about this back in 2000, when it was said that all you needed to shift an election was 5 minutes alone with one of these machines and a USB drive. Of course everybody was calling me paranoid. You don't even need a USB drive now.
Like even that aside technology is inherently malfunction prone, even if they were unhackable there's always the chance something goes wrong. With a piece of paper the worst that can happen is that it gets destroyed and reduced to null.
Straight party voting was eliminated in Texas in 2020, at least
The point was 99% the vote counting fraud though.
Yes, though I'd really like to see some evidence besides this single image
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/texans-say-voting-machines-are-flipping-selections-to-the-other-party
The "user error" explanation given was complete bullshit. When you voted straight party, that was it. There was no way for the voter to accidentally switch the senatorial vote after that. You'd have to be very deliberate to pull that off. And it has nothing to do with "rendering".
https://www.texastribune.org/2018/10/26/texas-voting-machines-2018-straight-ticket-midterm-elections/
The Texas Tribune took the SoS's statement as gospel. But the SoS was the fox guarding the henhouse.
I've seen maybe two other images of the "Party = D, Senator = Cruz" ballot "error", but that's the only one I saved (also because I know who took it).
When I went back to see what had come from the "investigation", my heart just sank when I saw that the press had simply swallowed the line given to them by the Abbott-appointed Texas Secretary of State: "oops, no big deal".
Who did the person who took this send it too? Did they name the county responsible for their elections? If this is real, I'm having a hard time understanding how I would have never seen it as a Texan plugged into subversive communities
Lady I know from Twitter posted it on there, and took it in Harris County.
And I don't know why you're so concerned about its veracity; the issue was widely reported on in Texas during the 2018 election. Search for that election and the phrase "vote flipping" and you should find out all you need to know-- well, at least all that Texas election officials were willing to admit to.
The same thing happened in Cruz's 2012 election-- same voting machine manufacturer, too-- although it was more widely reported on in 2018. They've cheated for him twice now.
That's very fair
Yes, that's right! I'd actually forgotten about that. I was never in the habit of voting straight party anyway, because once upon a time I would actually vote for Republicans if they were the only ones in their respective races. I figured the guy earned my vote for at least being the only person willing to do the job.
Not anymore. They can burn in hell.
Beto had a decent chance until he said he was coming for the AR-15s. I mean at least let your opponents say that, don't feed them the sound byte.
"I'd rather vote for a guy who skips a tenth of his votes, hikes the electric bill, and tried to overthrow a presidential election before I'd give up weapons used (repeatedly) to slaughter school children"
Mhmm yep. Very normal society.
The exit polls showed that Beto won the vote for the Senate race among native born Texans. So despite all the bad stuff people say about Texas, it's really all of those immigrants from other states that are ruining Texas.
And Ken Paxton is one of the most corrupt politicians in Texas. There's a good chance that if he leaves office, he'll be arrested by federal authorities soon afterwards, you know, if there's not a corrupt person in the White House. Paxton was impeached by the Texas legislature unanimously.
So, Paxton has kind of shot himself in the foot by being so openly corrupt. Hopefully it will be enough.
The gun comment was during the 2020 presidential primaries, didn't affect his 2018 Senate run. Definitely affected the 2022 Governor race, but I honestly don't think he actually wanted to run and just did so for the state party to save face when there were literally zero serious candidates announced for the primaries before he announced (like seriously nobody with any political experience, and one candidate without even a web site).
That loss was mostly due to bad turnout. If the Democrats had their usual Presidential turnout he would've won.
Timing also matters. When things are shitty people want change.
Things being shitty is not a new phenomenon. This state is a petri dish example of 30+ years of gop policies and mistakes. All that time, and the state literally re-elected the pos that went for vacation while their neighbors froze to death. I hope to see change but texas is entirely "wish I knew how to quit you" with them.
Texas is like ground zero for voter disenfranchisement though. They do it better than anyone.
Well an unfortunately large portion of the population doesn't have empathy and/or is subject to mis/disinformation all their waking hours. Their neighbor freezing should have paid or prayed more. The women and children dying from bad maternal-infant care same thing. Timing in this sense means things that actually affect what unempathetic and misinformed people care about and you can't hide from which are the price of gas and groceries because it hits them in the wallet every time they pay at the store.
He's getting a lot of support, though. Bro was on the legendary late show.
The. Late. Show.
It was canceled by Trump, that's how fuckin dangerous it was.
All the people in here commenting, like "oh no, there's a hope! Step on it!"
Wouldn't want people to actually get fired up and vote, now would we?
This is Lemmy. It's terminally online doomers and pompous Linux dweebs.
They don't want to be traumatized by marketing campaigns, yet again, that give them hope, only to have reality crush it mercilessly. It's defensive, and protective, and makes complete sense, living in a hellscape where politic and corporate lying is ever present and hazardous. They don't want others to be hurt.
So you're really just shitting on victims for trying to protect others.
You're making a huge amount of assumptions about the people expressing doomerism. They could just be assholes, or bots, or workers pushing messaging for the political opposition, or non-citizens who are treating US politics like a soap opera.
All you've done is created a strawman, claimed it has been traumatized by politics and asserted that this strawman is every person that's making cynical doomer comments.
The person that you're responding too is engaging with the reality of the thread, you're manufacturing a justification to feel self-righteous and outraged.
Sure I am. I'm not writing a peer reviewed paper here.
Repeated false hope doesn't fire up anybody. It demoralizes people.
I’ll believe it when I see it. You can serve filet mignon and Texans will still vote for feces on a platter. Example: Ted Cruz.
A lot of shitting on the possibility here. People have a right to be skeptical, but it's also hard to overstate how many moderate Republicans Ken Paxton has already alienated in Texas. Paxton has impeached by the Republican-led Texas House for his criminal activity. There are large swathes of suburban voters who may typically vote Republican but who would skip right over Paxton on that ballot.
At the same time, Talarico's ability to speak confidently and comfortably about religion and in churches is giving him a huge leg-up in making inroads with those same disaffected suburbanites.
The calculus is not the same as it was with Cruz vs O'Rourke in 2018. Talarico's prospects today are solidly better than O'Rourke's were at any point during his campaign.
I always felt like O’Rourke was mostly propped up by the party. I never really thought he had a serious shot at winning a statewide election.
Talarico is a genuine Christian. Try as they might, the Christian-ist Christians of Christian-By-God-Texas can’t make a dent in his actual real Christian love, and members of their flocks are noticing that. I see countless posts saying Jesus was a progressive, but precious few politicians that embody that. I hope he does well. That said, this is Texas. They may hate Paxton, but to they hate him enough to vote for gulp A DEMOCRAT!?
Beto was doing great, right up until he went on a big Texas radio show and announced intended to take away their guns. You could almost hear the air hissing out of the balloon.
He lost by a tiny margin. I strongly believe that dumb statement cost him the seat. If he had taken Cruz's seat, and Talarico took Cornyn's seat, we'd have two Dem senators from Texas.
But Beto couldn't keep his mouth shut about guns in Texas.
In true democrat fashion, snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.
I didn’t hear about the radio show, but I recall him saying it during, I think, the Democratic Presidential Debate in 2016?
There was one particular radio appearance that he was particular enthusiastic and confrontational, like he could get. That kind of attitude was taking him far, until he applied it to guns. In Texas.
Previous Dems had lost by double digits, but Beto got within a couple of percentage points. It seems onvious that gun statement made the difference.
It was over when he said hell yah he would take their ARs.
Don't underestimate how stupid Republican voters are either.
For good reason, this claim is made constantly.
I wrote more beyond those first 8 words
Yeah, providing nothing that could convince a realistic person that Texas is "blue".
fuck off with this maybe could be shit.
I'm convinced this kind of coverage is engineered for no purpose than to make people go "Well, it looks like a shoe in, so I dont have to go deal with the crowds" and next thing you know republican has won by 30%
Oh yeah, that's why a republican wins texas by 30% in a midterm. lol
Wouldn't it be purple, at best? Flipping one Senate seat in a red state isn't going to make the whole place blue.
For sure, but even making Texas remotely competitive would be a huge blow—it’s a large state that takes a lot of money to reach with political advertising, and if republicans have to start campaigning hard to keep their bedrock state then that time and money drain can start dragging other races.
I want to believe eapecially since Paxton may be the worst fucking candidate ever.
However i think even assuming Talarico wins Hot Wheels will find a way to claim the election is rife with fraud and appoint Paxton anyway.
Considering that Abbott is in charge of the fix, he would know
all the doubting here makes me think that if james wins that cons party will have a meltdown
That’s why I want him to win, I want him to win to own the chudservatives
I have friends that have or currently do live in Austin.
They have told me the cities are very left leaning.
In Illinois, it's mostly Chicago that keeps this state blue and keeps the red plague from taking over.
It's surprising how much of a foothold the reds have over Texas with Houston , Dallas, and Austin.
3 big cities.
City people are generally more democratic and left leaning. How are these 3 cities not having more of an impact on political seats in Texas?
the gerrymandering is bad in Texas
The population of the Chicago metro area (excluding the 2 WI and 2 IN counties that get lumped in) accounts for 66% of the population of the state.
The combined population of the Houston, Dallas, and Austin metro areas only account for 58% of the population of the state.
Not only that, most of Chicagoland is blue, but you cannot say the same for Texas cities where most of the outlying suburbs of the metro area are red.
The population of Houston proper, Dallas proper, and Austin proper combined only make up 15% of the population of Texas. But Chicago proper alone makes up over 21% of the population of Illinois. Throw in Aurora and Naperville to make the 3 city comparison a little more fair, and you get almost 26% of the population of IL.
San Antonio is the 7th largest city in the country, (soon to be the sixth) we have surpassed Philadelphia.
But it has only 1/3rd the density of LA. Famously car centric hellscape LA is 3(?!) times as dense as San Antonio.
I think physical proximity is part of what drives people in cities to vote more democratic. Texas Metro areas so so spread out they don't generate the same voting trends.
The winds of change are blowing. The cities continue to grow and the rural counties populations in West Texas are shrinking, but it will take a very long time for the weight of urbanization to take hold in Texas politics the way it has in Georgia and Virginia.
People in Texas cities wayyyy less likely to vote. The people in the country side voting red show up every single time.
Ive been hearing this since Bush and it hasn't once been close. So much like my football team, I'll believe when I actually see some results
It's really funny as an outsider. It's been decades of "Texas is going to go blue" lol
Yeah, as in “blue balls.” All this edging, smh
Don't expect much from the cowboys until Jerry kicks the bucket.
Don't give me hope... Just, don't. 😕
I'm at least semi-optimistic because they've known he was the nominee for over a month yet their best insults are calling him "Talifreako" and a "Vaygun". 🤔
The only thing Texas has ever turned blue:
This feels like a fetish.
c/ballbusting
Might want to read up on Ann Richards, for one.
That is a nice thought/expectation/wishful thinking... but seeing L.A. on track to chose a deeply shitty reality tv scumbag as Mayor, I am doubting Texans will do anything to help themselves
🦀🦀🦀🦀🦀🦀🦀🦀🎉🎊🎊
Fuck’en A!
Believe it when i see it.
Seen this headline with slightly different details about 100 times since the early 2000s.
News media in a country with a two-party system: dangling a carrot in the right spot to constantly keep the people in charge in the butter zone.
Is he a liberal or progressive?
Crocket is pro Zionist