Sunday afternoons in the Houston fall are tailor made for barbecue and politics. Well, that and motorcycle riding. Today was certainly a great example with the mild temperature and beautiful blue sky, so I fired up the VTX1800 and headed out. Guess what? I found barbecue and politics at the same location! How cool is that?
Dorothy Olmos, Republican candidate for the Texas State Board of Education, District 4, was having a fundraiser over on Irvington Blvd. Great turnout, great people, great music, and best of all, great barbecue! Here are a few pictures (ignore how dirty my bike is):
Now, why in the heck would Dorothy try to win a seat on the SBOE in an overwhelmingly Democratic district? Here is a map of it provided by the Texas Freedom Network (click here if your browser doesn’t support Google Viewer):
Yeah, yeah, I know that the TFN is a left leaning advocacy group but it’s just a map! Anyways, back to why Dorothy Olmos would attempt this apparent suicide mission. Here is what she told me today:
- HISD, squarely in the middle of this district, has a 65{997ab4c1e65fa660c64e6dfea23d436a73c89d6254ad3ae72f887cf583448986} dropout rate and the incumbent has been in office 8 years and done nothing to help.
- The district is almost 50{997ab4c1e65fa660c64e6dfea23d436a73c89d6254ad3ae72f887cf583448986} Latino, yet few resources are allocated to the Latino community, limiting the opportunity of Latino children.
- The incumbent, Lawrence Allen, supports adding same-sex marriage material to the curriculum of Kindergarten – Third Graders. Are you kidding me?
- She supports vouchers, which will enable parents to choose the best schools for their children. The Latino community would love to have the opportunity to send their children to Catholic schools, because they know that this would give them the best opportunity to succeed in life and achieve the American dream that they so desperately desire.
And is it really a suicide mission? After all, she received 44{997ab4c1e65fa660c64e6dfea23d436a73c89d6254ad3ae72f887cf583448986} of the vote when she ran for HISD school board. So while she is definitely the underdog, it is definitely not a suicide mission. She has the support and endorsements of many community leaders in Harris County and fundraisers like the one today have been well attended. Heck, I even saw three Harris County Republican Party precinct chairs there! That is almost as rare as seeing HCRP Chair Jared Woodfill or special consultant Jeff Yates! Well, okay, so Yates is non-existent but you get what I’m sayin’.
Kudos to Dorothy Olmos for getting in the ring and fighting, not only for this specific seat but also to bring more Latinos into the Republican Party where they belong. See that picture of the DJ holding his 3 month old? He’s worried about her future – that is why Latinos are attracted to conservative ideas.
Website: VoteDorothyOlmos.com
Facebook: DMOlmos