I've noticed the past couple days that the city labels on the maps haven't been appearing for me. The outlines of the states are still showing up as well as the counties and districts, but the actual background of the maps that normally display the city names and other geographic features are blank. I was wondering if this was just something on my end or something that anyone else has noticed? I hope this makes sense.
I doubt Steele actually gets 11% near the end, but those numbers are most likely coming from dissatisfaction with Patrick. He isn't particularly well-liked mostly due to his antics and his reputation for being anti-public education (Collier ran ahead of Beto in many rural counties due to Patrick's education stances). He's still likely to win, but like Paxton, he's a fairly weak candidate.
I haven't been seeing too many ads for the gubernatorial race (Abbott started airing some soon after his official announcement, although I don't see them as much anymore), but there's been a constant back-and-forth on air between Paxton and Gohmert. Gohmert has talked about Paxton being corrupt and Paxton fired back by claiming that Gohmert betrayed East Texas by supporting Obama's liberal agenda (lol). I don't know what the support looks like on the ground here, but my guess is that this will be his strongest region, but still probably won't be enough to carry a county. Maybe Smith, and only then it'll probably be with a small margin.
Here in East Texas, there are signs and billboards for Huffines everywhere, and I've even seen a car drive around with his logo. Would be funny to see all of that investment for him to only get 3% in the primary.
This led me down the rabbit hole and learned that Nick Saban was a student at Kent State during the Kent State shootings of 1970 and was on-campus when it happened. Here's a clip of him talking about it:
Ken Paxton is definitely favored to win the primary after this, but he is obviously a terrible candidate for the general. He's still likely to win, but he did have the worst statewide performance of any candidate besides Cruz in 2018.
Possibly, although it'd probably be a better bet for him to take on Cruz in a rematch of 2018. I'm thinking all of the prospective candidates are waiting to see what he's doing because he'll lock up the nomination if he does decide to run.
The New Yorker recently published a piece on Lina Hidalgo. [Link] I think she's more likely to run for re-election than higher office in 2022, but I think she has a bright future in this state. She has proven to be an effective official and she's quite popular with Democrats here, even those outside of Harris County.
The outcome of this race likely hinges on who Trump endorses. If Trump endorses Bush, he has a good shot at defeating Paxton, but it's not a sure thing. If Trump endorses Paxton, it's over.
My take on the gubernatorial race is that none of the challengers are notable enough to take out Abbott. I could be entirely out of touch with what Texas Republicans think, but I don't think they are that mad at Abbott that they would want to replace him with Huffines or West.
Jackson would probably be the best candidate here (other than Cooper, but he's not going anywhere), but I do worry if he might have missed his best opportunity win, even if it was for a good reason. 2022 could be a tougher climate for him based on history.
I don't think Shuler would actually jump into this race, especially if Jackson does indeed run. He would be a good candidate to face Cawthorn for his old district, but the seat is likely too red for a Democrat to win in this climate.
I totally forgot that this was announced today. Was the most anticipated cabinet nomination since Biden's election and it was barely a blip on the news.
It looks like Max Rose is strongly hinting at a run here. Him and Yang jumping in would make the race a little more interesting from an outsider's perspective, although I personally wouldn't know who I would support if I were a New Yorker. ?s=20
