I have just one request of Texas voters in the runoff elections coming up on May 24: Please don’t promote a Bush to Attorney General. Let’s please end the political career of Jeb Bush’s son, George P. Bush now, ok? Let’s end this sorry, globalist political dynasty forever right here in Texas in 2022.
As Jesse Jackson would put it: Stay out the Bushes, Texas. Enough of this nonsense.
Yes, I know that incumbent Attorney General Ken Paxton has a bunch of ethical allegations arrayed against him. But those allegations have been rumbling around him for the last 8 years, and during that time he’s been a good AG for Texas. There’s just no reason at all to replace him with a Bush.
Please don’t respond that those allegations make Paxton vulnerable to some damn Democrat opponent in November. It’s nonsense. Again, his ethical issues have been out there for 8 years, and he’s easily won twice. Yesterday’s huge turnout edge for the GOP over the Democrats indicates he will easily win again. More on that in a minute.
And please don’t tell me about George P.’s endorsement by one of the Border Patrol associations. It’s meaningless, like being endorsed by the Houston Chronicle or the Texas Tribune. It made for a nice primary ad, though, and got him into a runoff over better, more qualified candidates.
At the end of the day, he’s just another Bush. A Bush is a Bush is a Bush.
America’s history over the last 30 years has been too dominated by two globalist political dynasties: The Clintons and the Bushes. We rid ourselves of the Clintons in 2016: Let’s do the same with the Bushes in 2022. Please.
Ok, enough of that. Let’s go to the results.
Total Turnout: I was going to discuss this last, but it deserves topline mention.
The total turnout for this primary election completely debunks the thought that Texas is somehow on the verge of turning blue. If anything, it is trending in the opposite direction, becoming more red. That’s mainly thanks to Hispanic voters in the state fleeing the Democrat party in droves.
Turnout by Republicans in this year’s primaries was 1,860,000 voters. That’s up by 29% over the 1,440,000 who voted in the GOP primary in 2018.
Turnout by Democrats was 998,000. That’s 2% fewer than the 1,020,000 who voted in the 2018 party primary elections. So much for the media-promoted notion that having Irish Bob O’Rourke in the governor’s race would create excitement among Democrat voters and raise their turnout. They seem depressed instead. I can’t blame them.
In 2018, when Democrats nominated the hopeless Lupe Valdez as their sacrificial lamb in the governor’s race, the Republicans turned out 42% more voters in the primaries than the Democrats did.
In 2022, that GOP turnout advantage is a whopping 83%. That’s probably a record, although I admit I haven’t done the research on it.
Can’t we just call these November elections now, and let the Republicans get along with their business?
Ok, just kidding. But still…
Governor: Greg Abbott was supposed to be facing a “tough” primary challenge with two known opponents in the race: Allen West and the well-financed Don Huffines. Both West and Huffines attempted to challenge the incumbent from his right flank, and both miserably failed, getting just about 12 % of the vote apiece.
Also in the race was that Cowboy Hat guy who got semi-famous by posting pithy political commentary videos while sitting in his pickup truck, and convinced seemingly every other American with an iPhone that posting such videos was just a great idea. I’m proud to say I’ve never recorded such a video, and that Texas GOP voters only gave Chad Prather about 4% of the vote in this primary.
The Democrats nominated Irish Bob O’Rourke, who will have the privilege of becoming a 3-time looooooooooooser in November’s election against Gov. Abbott. Cool. It’ll be kind of fun to have “Beto” to kick around for the next 8 months.
Other Statewide Elections: None of the other statewide primary races held any big surprises, as incumbent Republicans prevailed without facing runoffs, except for the Railroad Commission race.
The Texas news media was hopeful that incumbent GOP Ag Commissioner Sid Miller, another big cowboy hat guy who the easily-triggered liberal reporters and editors all hate with a passion, would end up in a runoff against his own “tough” opponent. But Miller won almost 59% of the vote, and his main challenger, James White, ended up with just 31%. No problemo. Sorry, media, go find your safe space.
In that Railroad Commission race, incumbent Wayne Christian, who has been a fine commissioner, ended up in a runoff mainly because few voters actually know who the members of the RRC are. Thus, there is little name recognition advantage for the incumbents in these races.
Christian got 47% of the primary vote, and will be opposed by Sarah Stogner, a lawyer who famously posted a social media video in which she appeared riding an active pump jack while scantily clad. While that violates all sorts of oilfield safety rules, voters were impressed enough to award her 15.2% of the votes in the primary race, which was just enough to get her in a runoff with Mr. Christian. Watch this race, because anything could happen in May.
Congressional Races: No real surprises in these races, but two of them had interesting outcomes.
Congressional District 3: Incumbent Van Taylor had a challenge from the right, and will end up in a runoff. Taylor received 48.7% of the vote, while challenger Keith Self got 26.5%. This will be an interesting runoff to watch, especially if Self can drum up some TV ad money from a third party advocacy PAC.
Congressional District 28: With 99% of the votes counted in this Laredo-centered district, incumbent Democrat Henry Cuellar has 26,014 votes, while his two challengers have a combined 26,034. His main challenger from the hard left, Jessica Cisneros, has over 23,000 of those votes. Unless Cuellar manages to gain a net 21 votes as that final 1% is counted, he will end up in a runoff with Cisneros in May.
Cuellar, you may remember, had his home raided by the FBI several weeks ago, an event obviously timed to help Cisneros’s prospects in this race. Cuellar, you see, is an actual Democrat moderate, a real endangered species, one that Biden’s Justice Department seems determined to eradicate entirely.
Bottom line: Other than these few exceptions, these primary races went exactly as we should have expected them to go. That total turnout number, though, will shock the newsrooms around this state and nationally, though few of the corrupt media outlets will admit it. Any who do decide to mention it will devise arguments to rationalize it all away.
But that 83% turnout advantage is a huge number, and it won’t be disappearing anytime soon. Depending on how things go nationally, it might even grow larger in 2026.
Texas is a Red state, and it’s becoming Redder. That’s the headline here.
That is all.
Fabulous news!