TUE brief 11.16.21
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Today’s Stories
BOBBY FRANCIS O’ROURKE spin, to the extent it’s happening, is weak.
This morning Axios called the twice (arguably thrice) failed candidate’s new run a “longshot bid.” Even the Texas Tribune (Trib), who drooled over him in 2018, called O’Rourke “a weaker candidate with a harder race.”
Both are closer to candy-coated assessments than the “Beto bout to the trucked” reality.
2022 ought to be a brutal year for Democrats at the ballot box. There’s little suggestion from D.C. that the Biden administration can comprehend what is going on in the economy, and they’ve shown even less interest in meaningfully communicating with the public.
As for the O’Rourke spin, the Houston Chronicle’s Jeremy Wallace has five reasons why he’s a better candidate for governor than he was for President in 2020. A few of his points aren’t cogent, and none are compelling.
Primary challengers don’t make O’Rourke a better candidate against Abbott, and registration figures for the Republicans are keeping pace with Democrats. Suggesting Beto has an edge in registrations that will net him a win isn’t founded.
The most high-profile fight Bobby engaged in backfired in 2021, cheerleading a Democrat election integrity walkout. A bill was ultimately passed in Texas and D.C. Democrats patronized the efforts of Beto’s quorum busters, sending them home empty-handed.
On the policy front, the 2021 freeze might play with voters but, COVID could be a liability by the election, and the ascendant issue of parental involvement in education will go badly for O’Rourke.
True, he’ll be a busy bee, the likes of which won’t have been seen at the state level since 2018, but he was engaged in HD 2019 in 2020 and lost big. The same is anticipated.
TEXAS PARENTS continue to wrestle control of public education away from entrenched woke progressives at the local and state level. Here are some of the developing fights.
RYAN GUILLEN, who switched parties from Democrat to Republican yesterday, has a mixed record on election integrity.
Following Guillen’s defection, Chris Turner, head of the Democrat caucus in the Texas House, released the following statement.
Readers should take Turner’s phony outrage with a grain of salt.
Much like Guillen, despite being a multi-term incumbent head of the chamber’s Democrat caucus, Chris Turner has been appointed a committee chair by the past three Republican Speakers.
As discussed yesterday, this is a highly choreographed event, and Turner’s shadowboxing is part of an anticipatable charade.
Guillen walked the vote on the recently passed election bill. This was almost certainly a tactical political decision, as Guillen had yet to decide which party’s primary he would file for re-election. While this is hardly a profile in political courage, neither is it the stuff of successful primary challenges.
In 2017, Guillen supported a measure that restricted ballot harvesting, but he opposed a separate bill on voter ID. Again, a mixed bag.
While his defection is good and does fit the trend of South Texas moving toward Republicans, overdone praise by elements of the party content on the watering down priorities paired with disdain aimed at activists who hold the line is goofy.
The Guillen pick up is offset by potentially two or three seats in the House gifted to Democrats because of the fearful low ceiling incumbent Republican lawmakers. Boasting about the Guillen pick-up after drawing maps that benefit Democrat pals is disingenuous.
As to his potential performance in a GOP primary and likelihood of cultivating a more conservative voting record, former-Representative Chuck Hopson serves as a helpful model.
Flashback: Hopson’s flip a GOP flop?
The TEXAS TRIBUNE, over the weekend, ran two pieces that illustrate the institutional rot that’s consumed the left in recent years.
First, in a piece about a San Antonio-based “non-profit” that “helps” illegal aliens obtain abortions, Tribune reporter Bekah McNeel discusses how the group’s clients include “even those raped en route to the U.S.”
In other words, sex trafficking victims are raped by their coyotes.
It’s not a secret that (for obvious reasons), abortion and sex trafficking tend to be tightly linked. Whether the Tribune’s failure to make this point comes from malice or negligence is irrelevant. Neither is acceptable.
Second, this tweet.
Suggesting that pushback to wacky trans sex pornography in schools “is being largely driven by white parents” is not true and represents the Trib attempting to force a racial narrative where none exists. That’s highly revealing behavior.
Hit the Links
Grand jury subpoenas Harris County commissioners
Biden poised to abandon more Americans abroad
Birdshop owner running for Democrat Lt. Gov nomination
Unsafe bathrooms at public schools lead to door removal
Smuggling Incident Near Del Rio Kills Eight People
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