Email from the Mike Collier for Lt. Governor campaign:
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Heck, if the Democratic candidate for Lt. Governor can be blunt, I don’t see why I can’t be blunt. You want to know why the Democrats are turning out more primary voters than ever before? Let’s see:
For the first time in two decades, they have a lot of contested primary races.
Why do they have so many contested primary races?
Donald Trump. To say that the President is a polarizing figure is like saying the earth rotates the sun. It is what it is.
The second reason? And most important for what’s left of the Texas Republican Party?
Gregg Abbott.
For whatever reason, Abbott has decided to attack Republicans, calling them Democrats. Imagine if you are a Republican voter and you hear the very popular governor of Texas saying that you haven’t really been voting for Republicans since 2010, you’ve been voting for Democrats and you are too stupid to know it!
And yet, that is exactly what Gregg Abbott is doing when he attacks three State Representatives in his own party, Sarah Davis, Wayne Faircloth and Lyle Larson.
You stupid, stupid voters! Who cares if you think the people that you voted for are representing you well! You sir, you madam, are an idiot! Because I, Gregg Abbott, am the sole definer of who is and who isn’t a Republican!
Tomorrow is going to be very interesting. Do the voters say, hey, you are so right Governor Abbott! I’m a blithering idiot for voting for these candidates! Geez, why didn’t you let me know years ago!
Or will they say, damn, dude is unhinged. If my candidate loses tomorrow, I’m going to check out the other side.
And thus, we have Mike Collier’s enthusiasm.
It’s ironic that I am recalling a conversation from 2014 when Abbott ran for governor the first time. I was talking with a local Harris County consultant and he was saying, can you imagine the inroads we would make if Abbott would support candidates in districts we aren’t supposed to win? At that time, Abbott was sitting on $20+ million and refusing to directly support candidates other than someone named Gregg Abbott.
We had a candidate on the ballot that checked every single box that you would want for a Republican. Decorated Navy sailor, solid conservative, everything you could ever want in a candidate. But he couldn’t raise money because the “powers that be” wanted to leave Gene Wu alone in District 137. Fiki ended up losing by a large percentage but the number of votes was only 1,944. You’ll never convince me in a million years that if Abbott had dropped $50k to Morad that he wouldn’t have won.
Yet today, in 2018, when Abbott’s warchest has grown to $43 million, we see Abbott spending a quarter million to defeat a Republican in Harris County, plus whatever he is spending to defeat the Bexar and Galveston County incumbents.
Want a big tent? Want to keep Texas Red? Stop telling voters that Republicans suck, Gov. Abbott.
I have received out of state and 1-877 type calls every day for the last two weeks from Spanish speaking folks. I assume they are calling me to get me to vote. I say “I’m American, only speak English, not an illegal alien. They always hang up without saying anything else.
I agree with you on the first point, Democrats are turning out in droves because of Trump. He is indeed a polarizing figure. However, point 2 is ludicrous. Democrats are not turning out in droves because of Abbott. He’s hardly a polarizing figure, and actually won some of the Democrat vote down in the Valley back when he ran against Wendy Davis. Yes, some of those Democrat counties actually went red for Abbott. Campaigning against liberal Republicans who habitually prevent conservative legislation makes sense if the end game is to actually pass conservative legislation, and not just count how many Republicans we have in the legislature.
Could it be that we have finally imported enough democrats from other blue states?
A liberal republican is far better than a liberal democrat
Really? There is no difference, Look at McCain. Wait, they profess to be pro-life.
I would never vote for Dan Patrick again. We bought his jib hook line and sinker fourteen years ago.
Hes still running on property tax caps….put a sock in it Dan.
Yeah and look who he has had to get past. Fred Hill then Joe Strausss. Two repubs with all the conservative bonafides of our blog host that always seems endorse the most liberal gopers he can find to promote.
Hey guys, come on, relax and stop getting all exercised. It makes little difference what Greg Abbott does or what David says – and I admire David – because in Harris County this coming November, the Democrats will likely sweep most Republicans out of office.
It’s not so much Trump as it is changing demographics.
open borders does that to a nation…dems played the long game while the repubs watched
Former Harris County District Judge Greg Abbott should give some serious thought to the fact that his vocal support did not help Kathaleen Wall or Susana Dokupil. Nor did Ted Cruz’s bizarre comments about the “male-dominated” and “cut throat” world of semiconductors. Maybe our statewide leaders should stay in their lanes and focus on winning new voters over instead of picking intra-party fights.
Greg Abbott’s support for local races played out in favor of moderate GOP voters. He lost 3 of his 4 “crusades”. Those of us who were told we’re not really republicans will remember this in November.
Yes, especially when said “Republicans” are operating straight out of the John Birch Society PlayBook. Abbott and his crew aren’t Republicans, they are Libertarians. No regulation, no restrictions, and “might makes right.”. Everyone does what they want.
I will never vote for Abbott, Patrick, or any of the yes – men Abbott promotes through his network of PACs again
Not only did Davis win and Wall implode, but 37% of Harris County Republicans said they do NOT want to abolish abortion in Texas. Some years ago the state GOP had a referendum on this subject, and when there were significant pro-choice votes on the topic, they argued that the referendum was confusing to the voters. This year the wording was pretty straight forward. It would be interesting to see the data broken down by districts.
Also, an analysis of the undervote shows that Syed Ali had a high level of undervotes in his unopposed contest, and Jim Murphy had a bit more than others. Ed Emmett did better than others near him on the ballot. In the contests for Governor and Lt. Governor, the undervote was low, but a fair number of voters voted against the incumbents, about 9% and 18%, respectively. Statewide the anti-Patrick vote was even stronger.
One issue that I suspect many people had with the abortion proposition is that a large number of people favor the standard “life of the mother” exception, and many more people favor the rape and incest exceptions. This proposition appears to ignore those.
I did not vote on that proposition, along with several others. In general, I don’t like to vote yes because I distrust the motives behind the people who write them. Language can be chosen precisely enough so that the perceived meaning can be manipulated and changed.