Shell_Seas
Shell_Seas's JournalHow Important Is Harris County In The 2024 Election?
The Battle for Texas: Why Harris County Is Ground Zero
https://www.lonestarleft.com/p/how-important-is-harris-county-in
Looking at Texas politics like a chessboard, Harris County is the queen piece—versatile, powerful, and pivotal in flipping the Lone Star State. As we are gearing up for the 2024 elections, all eyes are on Harris County, like a bright blue beacon in a sea of red.
Not only does Harris County account for a staggering 14+% of Texas’ total vote, but it also accounts for an impressive 17.5% of the Democratic vote in Texas. With each passing election, Harris County only gets bigger and bluer. In 2024, Harris County will have one of the most significant impacts in Texas.
Harris County is the largest county in the state and the third largest in America. The city of Houston comprises about half of Harris County’s population. The rest of the population lives in mid-sized cities like Pasadena or smaller towns like Baytown.
Harris County is a majority-minority County, with Latinos making up the majority of the population. Harris County in 2020 was 12 points less White, four points more Latino, seven points more Black, and 2 points more Asian than Texas. Almost 70% of the population is non-White.
Billionaire Republican vs. Billionaire Republican
Divide and Conquer: How the latest GOP propaganda is shaping the Republican agenda.
https://www.lonestarleft.com/p/billionaire-republican-vs-billionaire
Fuck, I love the GOP Civil War. It’s like watching reality TV but with oil, guns, and a few sidekicks named Cletus.
In this latest episode of Republican-on-Republican violence, two of the most prominent oligarchs in Texas square off for a head-to-head match. Before we get into it, we need a little context.
Tim Dunn - Net Worth $2.2 billion.
Richard (Dick) Weekley - Net Worth over $1 billion
Tim Dunn - Amount spent on Texas politics since 2015 - $21,476,061
Dick Weekley - Amount spent on Texas politics since 2015 - $15,640,652
Dunn and Weekley are billionaires and have spent millions of dollars in Texas politics over the last decade. They are the same, two fat cows, each thinking they own Texas. They certainly own the Republican Party of Texas and have for many years.
Scott Braddock Mulls Over Dems Flipping Nine House Seats - Do I Agree?
Analyzing the Odds: Can Texas Democrats Make a Legislative Breakthrough in 2024?
https://www.lonestarleft.com/p/scott-braddock-mulls-over-dems-flipping
Last week’s episode of Texas Take with Scott Braddock and Jeremy Wallace got into the nitty-gritty of what we might see regarding Democratic performance in the Texas House in the November election.
(You can listen to the full episode here.)
As Texas Democrats, we reach for hope as we trudge through each election cycle. There are many legitimate reasons to be optimistic. Last week’s episode of Texas Take mostly validated what I’ve been saying for months, but I want to talk specifically about the points Braddock made and shine more light on some of the races Democrats need to focus on for the Texas House.
The most important thing to remember in the fight for sanity in Texas is that if the Texas House flips, we end the Republican agenda. We need to flip 12 seats to flip the House. Could we do it this election? Anything is possible, but we might also come under that number, giving Republicans a razor-thin majority.
Some Of The Most Important Texas Elections in 2024
Curriculum and Control: The Fight for Texas' Classrooms
https://www.lonestarleft.com/p/some-of-the-most-important-texas
The Republican war on education started in 1983 under the Ronald Reagan presidency. Reagan used education as a political strategy to erode the foundation of public education. Then, George Dubya Bush further pushed the Reagan agenda with “No Child Left Behind.” The trajectory of educational policy under Republican leadership created a culture of “teaching to the test” and neglecting the needs of individual students.
With Texas under Republican rule for the last three decades, education has been one area that has consistently struggled. Whether it’s Republicans refusing to fund education and give teachers a pay raise or attacking science and history, the overall goal of our right-wing counterparts has seemed to be to keep them dumb and keep them voting red.
After all of these years, their strategy is finally paying off.
Bettencourt Attacks Anti-Poverty Program After $625K PPP Loan Forgiven
Senator Paul Bettencourt's fiscal hypocrisy shows the stark divide between personal gain and public good.
https://www.lonestarleft.com/p/bettencourt-attacks-anti-poverty
Senator Paul Bettencourt is a multi-millionaire deeply entrenched with the Heritage Foundation and ALEC. In 2020, Senator Bettencourt received a $627,224 PPP loan, which he never had to repay.
While Bettencourt sits in his $1.1 million Houston home on top of his mountains of gold, he’s decided to make people living in abject poverty the latest target of his ire.
Harris County, under the bold leadership of County Judge Lina Hidalgo, was due to launch a program this month called Uplift Harris, an anti-poverty program that would help the least of our society pay for food and basic needs.
Who The F*ck Elected Tim Dunn, Anyway?
Faith, Funds, and Fascism: The dangerous ideology funding Texas politics.
https://www.lonestarleft.com/p/who-the-fck-elected-tim-dunn-anyway
Earlier this week, several House Republicans, along with many Republican candidates, re-wrote the Southern Manifesto to give it a modern spin. Since then, ten more far-right candidates signed on to this anti-Democratic manifesto.
When you pull back the curtains of these far-right candidates, there’s one thing that they almost all have in common. That’s the big bucks that they’re raking in from Tim Dunn and Farris Wilks.
Here are the current signees:
Far-Right Republicans Re-Write The "Southern Manifesto," Call It A Contract
The Conservative Coup: Rewriting the rules of Texan democracy.
https://www.lonestarleft.com/p/far-right-republicans-re-write-the
Today, 13 far-right Republicans (8 who haven’t even been elected yet) published a document, which they are calling “Contract With Texas.” However, the “contract” is an anti-democratic blueprint that will reform the Texas House to completely silence the minority party (Democrats) and silence the voices of millions of Texans.
The contract isn’t only a statement of intent. It’s an assertion of “Conservative values” and aims to consolidate Republican power in the House and significantly reshape the legislative process. This so-called “contract” will sideline voices, diminish bipartisan cooperation, and advance ideology that conflicts with Texas’s changing demographics.
Here is the “Contract With Texas:”
Is Lt. Governor Dan Patrick A White Supremacist?
We've gotten used to Republicans saying the quiet parts out loud, but do we ever stop and think about the ideology behind their words?
https://www.lonestarleft.com/p/is-lt-governor-dan-patrick-a-white
In 2020, Dan Patrick went on TV and said the economy was more important than your life. In 2020, he said at CPAC that “God wrote the Constitution.” Dan Patrick has a history of saying off-the-wall, wacky, and hateful things. However, over the last year, I’ve noticed he’s turned the volume way up. You aren’t going to believe what he’s been saying on Fox News this week. But first, the backstory.
A federal judge in Texas in March upheld an essential piece of President Joe Biden’s immigration policy. The policy allows a limited number of migrants from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela to enter the US on humanitarian grounds. Texas and 20 other states had sued, arguing the program is forcing them to spend millions on health care, education, and public safety for the migrants. They lost that suit on humanitarian grounds.
Earlier this week, the Daily Mail published an article that stated that the majority of these asylum seekers are being flown into Florida and Texas.
(As a reminder, the Daily Mail is a far-right publication.)
Fascism: Loud And Out In The Open
Texas and the far-right agenda.
https://www.lonestarleft.com/p/fascism-loud-and-out-in-the-open
Last week, the Texas Public Policy Foundation held its annual summit. Several panels included Republicans from the Legislature and various right-wing influencers. They had a panel regarding disenfranchising people, which they called “Election Integrity,” featuring prominent election deniers. In another panel, a group of elderly white people had an hour-long discussion about how Texas was “winning the war on woke.” However, throughout the entire panel, not once did they define “woke” or even hint at what they mean by it, but one of the last audience questions mentioned that all of this wokeness in America didn’t start until the 1960s. (He meant the 1965 Civil Rights Act.)
I’ve spent the last week mulling through these panels (because somebody has to), and one of them perked up my ears. The panel is called “Texas vs. DC.” Brian Phillips, the Chief Communications Officer at TPPF, moderated the panel, which included Texas Land Commissioner Dawn Buckingham, Senator Bryan Hughes, Phil Wegman from RealClearPolitics, and Paul Dan, the Executive Director of Project 2025.
Yes, THAT Project 2025:
Death To The Republican Caucus
The self-destruction of Texas' right wing.
https://www.lonestarleft.com/p/death-to-the-republican-caucus
While Texas Republicans remain in complete disarray, most of us have been left believing that we would have to wait until the 89th Legislature to see blood. However, fights over leadership this last weekend proved us all wrong.
Yesterday, Harris County Republican Representative Briscoe Cain asked, “Should the Texas House GOP Caucus be dissolved?”
I answered the poll, “It’s useless,” because the House GOP Caucus is useless, but if the in-fighting among Republicans has gotten so bad that they are going to dissolve their entire caucus, I say let them. It will only help Democrats in the long run.
How did this come about?
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Member since: Thu Aug 11, 2016, 03:03 PMNumber of posts: 3,330