Texas primary runoff hot take two: Strangeabbott's shrinking coattails

Bo French, a nutter even by Tex-ass GOP standards, defeated incumbent Jim Wright in the Texas Railroad Commission Rethuglican runoff. That's despite Strangeabbott, and others, endorsing Wright.

More on his degree of nuttery and the runoff at Inside Climate News. 

Side note: Despite the Monthly wondering if Farris Wilks should be on the side of a milk carton, which led to jokes by me earlier this month, Wilks as well as Tim Dunn, with personal money as well as PAC money, was there for both the original round and the runoff. 

And, of course, because that's the way he rolls, Strangeabbott was a big old crow-eating hypocrite after French won:

While the United States’ war in Iran has provided a boost to the Texas oil industry, Abbott warned during a campaign event earlier this month that French’s agenda would “wreck” Texas oil and gas. He went on to say that Republicans can’t assume victory in the general election. “All of these elections are going to be close in November,” he said.  

Wednesday morning, Abbott struck a different tone when he congratulated French. 

“Republicans are UNITED and ready to win in November to keep Texas, TEXAS!” Abbott wrote on his campaign X account.

Shock me. 

==

Beyond that, Abbott-endorsed Abraham Enriquez lost in the 19th CD runoff and nutter state Sen. Briscoe Cain, also endorsed by Strangeabbott, lost to Alex Mealer. Cain was laughably called a "liberal lightweight" by a super PAC funding Mealer. I'm still not sure how much some PACs and super PACs believe their claims.

Texas primary runoffs hot take: "The Art of No Deal"

Boy, did Cornyn get smoked. No two ways about it.

The Bulwark's piece notes how much of a Pander Bear he had become, complete with Shit from Shitter, on Big John's own account, with the photo. And, that's a full year ago!

Why didn't Trump endorse earlier? Beyond the Bulwark talking about him having bigger fish to fry, I think maybe he thought Paxton didn't need an endorsement.

There's also a third reason. And a fourth reason.

Third? Trump's a frontrunner; he probably read the March primary tea leaves, or had it done for him.

Fourth? Trump likes to see people grovel. And, this runoff election was perfectly teed up for him to make both Cornyn and Paxton "twist slowly in the wind" like Pat Gray at Nixon's hands.

As for Cornyn, and that Pander Bear photo? Call it "The Art of the No Deal."

The Times has more. Beyond Cornyn's race, it notes the Super PAC backing nutter Democrat Congressional candidate Maureen Galindo had GOP ties. If you're a super PAC, you're supposed to cover your tracks better than that.

Just about everybody is talking about how lame-duck GOP senators may stand up more to Trump. Except around the margins, don't hold your breath. It may not even happen that much with the likes of Thomas Massie in the House.

Don't believe me? Believe this piece linked off the Bulwark, titled "Weep Not for Cornyn":

Maybe a grudging, strange new respect will form for Cornyn over the coming months as he joins Senators Cassidy and Tillis in offering the most modest pushback imaginable against our Nero-in-Chief. And then John Cornyn will be forgotten, and to the extent that he is remembered he will vaguely be thought of as that one Texas senator who wasn’t as bad as the other one: not as sleazy as Cruz, not as corrupt as Paxton, etc. 

But I don’t think he should get away that easily. 

No, it is as important to call out our gutless elected officials as it is to celebrate the brave ones. I hope John Cornyn is remembered for what he is: an incompetent and cowardly senator who put himself before his country. 

I texted a politico friend about Cornyn’s coming defeat, and the friend replied that, yes, Cornyn is a victim of the disease that has infected one of our country’s two major parties. 

Victim? Oh no. John Cornyn is not and never was a victim. Actually, he has had more agency in our country’s existential fight against Trumpism than roughly 99.999% of Americans. In 2021 there were exactly 100 people who could have put this sad and sorry chapter of American history behind us for good, and in that moment John Cornyn hid behind Mitch McConnell’s skirt, who was himself hiding behind a completely contrived constitutional justification for letting Trump get away with an attempted coup—as if McConnell himself wasn’t the reason the Senate trial was delayed until after January 20. 

Fifty-seven United States senators were able to do the right and obvious thing and voted to convict and bar that evil man from ever holding public office again, including seven Republican senators. John Cornyn, however, could not do what his oath of office required.

That's about right. (Added emphasis mine.)

As for James Talarico? I'll give you 94 percent odds, right now, that he doesn't win. That's even with him doing his own Pander Bear to the degree of trying to normalize Cornyn. Anybody who claims the Magnificat in Luke supports reproductive choice will pander about anything.

The only other questions I have are, first, will Talarico lean into, or run away from, already clearly being standard neolib Democrat, and second, will he actually say something on Gaza? I'm pretty sure I already know the answers, and that he'll lose to Paxton in Cornyn style rather than with principles.

No-bid border wall contracts in Big Bend area

In addition to the question of whether or not a border wall will actually be built through Big Bend National Park — an issue that currently still SEEMS to be "no" but be skeptical — we have a new issue:

No-bid contracts. 

The full (for now) exposure of this dirtiness comes courtesy of a federal lawsuit. A main focus is Tommy Fisher, who built a small section of privately funded wall during Trump 1.0 that drew Der Gruppenführer's scorn then, but his largess now.

That said, the company filing the lawsuit, Posillico, has nowhere near clean skirts on wall-building, let alone wall-building opposition. This is simply another company wanting its share of the grift:

The company has previously built 43 miles of federal wall in South Texas and also won a contract to construct sections of Gov. Greg Abbott’s state border project. The state project experienced many of the same construction delays and cost overruns as Trump’s border wall.

There you are. 

The Red Sox make themselves look stupid, give Graham Platner a boost

The Boston Red Sox pulled down a Graham Platner ad that, in part, attacked the team for selling out to private equity, tying in with his populist campaign. 

As far as the issues at hand? Seeing this story posted by the British newspaper The Independent at r/mlb, it seems there may be a bit of confusion by one Sox fan, and bigger issues by the team.

Basically, we seem to be getting a bit of intimidation by the ownership mixed with an overly aggressive interpretation of trademark law.

First? Per the Boston Herald, the ad in full is on Platner's Shitter account, with the same font. That there says that Platner campaign isn't worried about the intellectual property claim.

Secod, the NESN statement does NOT say what the intellectual property issue is. That's where I see the bit of intimidation coming in.

Also, technically, ONLY the "B" is trademarked, and otherwise, the team name. The font is reportedly hand-drawn and, the Sox would have to prove that is EXACTLY the same font, not a very similar commercially available font.

Above and beyond all that, you can use a trademarked phrase in a political ad, within certain limitations. Here's some basic law. The key thing is, Platner is not implying the team is endorsing him. Far from it. The Sox would have pretty serious uphill sledding if they really thought about pursuing legal action. 

HEre you go:

Private equity is taking our homes. It's taking our hospitals. It's taking beloved local businesses and stripping them for parts.

And now private equity is running the Red Sox into the ground.

Our new ad ⬇️ pic.twitter.com/w7LapElpdA

— Graham Platner for Senate (@grahamformaine) May 22, 2026

Let's see what happens next. 

Again, per the one Redditor? The NESN statement didn't say WHAT credible concerns. We can assume the font; we can also assume, given that people let this ad get through in the first place, their credibility level isn't that high. The Sox would have been much better off simply refusing the ad in the first place. Somebody didn't eye it, and now they look like idiots. 

Otherwise, I wrote two weeks ago about Platner's tattoos and other issues. 

 

 

Texas Progressives talk Paxton-Cornyn and more

Off the Kuff has his fun with the Trump endorsement of the crooked Ken Paxton over the dignity-deprived John Cornyn. 

SocraticGadfly offers two timely pieces, one elections-related and the other, on a surface level more humorous but in reality perhaps not. First, he looked at the Trib story on Trump's endorsement of Ken Paxton and saw that one Talarico staffer badly failed Math 101, probably not a good thing or good sign. Secondly, at his Substack, he imagined a graduate of the Class of 2026 facing the world of AI in job hunting. 

Hey, Kenny Boy, are you suing the phone company, then USPS, after Discord? I'm no fan of much of modern social media, but these exploitation-abetting lawsuits are ridiculous. If only Kenny Boy would sue tech companies over abetting genocide in Gaza.

People indeed need to mourn that now, if you're a student activist on a UT System campus, the president could eliminate your favorite course. They also need to mourn the lies the regents are telling to try to justify this.

Tarrant County is such a conservative outlier among Texas' largest counties it hates black people to death. 

I need to add "future fascist" to my moniker for Jonathan Stickland, whom I have long called "Former Fetus Future Fuckwad." 

RIP Barney Frank, Zionist and abettor of the subprime crisis. Is is any wonder that modern neoliberal national Democrats went so deep into mourning? 

Houston Democracy Project Blog reported Houston-area activist visited by Secret Service for writing 86 47 in chalk in driveway, has written letter to Todd Blanche asking for money from Trump’s victimization fund.

The Texas Observer calls Bo French's bid for Railroad Commissioner what it is.

The Current writes their political obituary for dead man walking Sen. John Cornyn.

D Magazine gives you the best story you'll read about Nolan Ryan beating up Robin Ventura.

Evil MoPac learns some things about Austin swingers.

The TPA wishes Texas Public Radio and the San Antonio Report all the best with their new partnership.

Kerrville, the Guadalupe and Camp Mystic: This summer and this fall

Camp Mystic's head nurse has had her license temporarily suspended, in what looks like it could become a permanent action, more fallout from last year's preventable tragedy. Mystic, of course, has not reopened. The Monthly reports on those that have, and the broader business climate in greater Kerrville. It's interesting that a number of other camp owners and general river businesses agreed to talk to the Monthly only if they didn't ask about Mystic.

Per the end of the piece, about how much of the riverside cleanup on the Guadalupe ripped out a lot of soil-stabilizing vegetation, I wonder what a super El Niño, still projected as likely starting this fall, will bring. As in, new river wreckage? I can definitely see that happening. The question is, how far beyond the river itself will this round of likely major flooding go?