A dog's breath of candidates running for US Senate in Tex-ass, and it doesn't look like it's getting better

The race sucks less than it did until early August, but still.

Hope to doorknob Greens have somebody enter.

Note to Dems: I vote for federal offices based on foreign policy as well as domestic policy. That includes, of course, the Middle East.

You'll see why as we get into the weeds of this post more.

First, an up-front note. Per a Trib poll of a week ago, more than half of respondents don't know who the fuck any of these people are. At least, they don't know enough to express an opinion. Hegar drew a whole 11 percent; she also led West by 1 point in name recognition, though Royce may rank that high for grifting news reasons.

Cristina Tzintzún Ramirez at first seemed the best bet so far overall. An activist with connections, recruited by Beto Bros, and at least halfway committed to single payer. Has union ties and has a strong party background. However, the commitment to single payer is not 100 percent, as she said she's OK starting with "the public option." I don't like compromising away compromises in public, first. Second, "the public option" isn't THAT much easier either fiscally or politically.

And, I don't know her stance on Israel / Zionism and other major foreign policy issues.

She does now, a month in, have a campaign website. But, I still can't know her positions on things like that, because she doesn't list them. She does, though, continue the hedging on health care, saying "I want to ensure every Texan has high quality health care." On the website, she doesn't mention single payer OR the public option. Just that statement.

I've already taken another bit of dislike. Candidates who can't have an "issues" button, link or menu, but CAN have a "merch" link as well as a donate button? Pass.

Per a Beto 2018 election staffer, at the Frisco debate, she was the only one to explicitly back the Dems' Green New Deal. That said, I think Sema Hernandez' overall policy points incorporate the same idea.

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Sema Hernandez? From 2018, on paper, has the platform that most agrees with me. But, as I wrote in a longform, she put one foot, at least, into Just.Another.Politician.™ territory with her air-kiss bromance with Bob is a Knob O'Rourke, including endorsing him, which has not led to a counter-endorsement. As I said there, until she officially repudiates that, I wouldn't vote for her, if I were in the Dem primary.

I'm not going to mince words. Going into into Just.Another.Politician.™plays directly against why some people supported you in 2018. Plus, you know your Beto claims weren't true. That said, since you ARE in that JAP territory, it's not working.

So STOP FUCKING DOING IT! And stop fucking loopking back to it.

Per the Beto 2018 campaign organizer, you're making unsubstantiated and likely untrue claims, as in the first debate in Frisco:

She also connected her advocacy for Medicare For All in 2017 and pressure put on Beto O’Rourke to part of his later success: “we pushed Mr. O’Rourke to support Medicare for All and after our endorsement on that basis, his poll numbers went up for the first time in 18 months” [Citation needed].

Yes, citation needed.

Here's what she Tweeted recently.

I'm a 34 years old, single mother of four, daughter of immigrants, human rights activist, civil rights activist, and environmental justice activist, running for U.S. Senate.

I am taking on the political establishment and their donors.

I am not backing down.#Sema2020 pic.twitter.com/yhCLZLWfbK

— Sema for U.S. Senate (@_SemaHernandez_) September 10, 2019

She still hasn't done that repudiation, and despite that bromance with Bob, a Nina Turner endorsement, and announcing already late last year, she apparently still hasn't raised $5K. And, you can't have it both ways on claiming you're attacking the establishment when a year ago, you were trying to suck up to them.

Frankly, I think she misread the 2018 election and expects other things to happen by magic.

And, that's still not happening. If you're thinking you can run an Obama-like campaign off social media? Well, he raised a cool $1 billion in his prez run to pay a bunch of Silicon Valley types for a bunch of microtargeting.

And, otherwise, Sema? Establishment Dems were never going to reciprocate your puppy-dog chasing after them.

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Michael Cooper? Seemingly progressive in the 2018 Lite Guv race. He ran as a semi-team with Tom Wakely, definitely the most progressive gov candidate. Problems, though, with him? Yes. First, despite announcing in March, as of August, his website had nothing but a picture and a donate link. No stances. AND, if I'm reading this Facebook post correctly, he might be pro-life. Pass, until his website is updated and this issue is clarified. (As of last week, still nothing more.)

And, of course, for this and any candidate who ran for either some statewide state-level office, or a federal, i.e., Congressional, office in either 2016 or 2018, not having formulated positions, publicly posted, is simply unacceptable.

Also, for whatever reason, he was not at the Frisco debate.

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M.J. Hegar? Been in the race almost as long as Cooper, raised more than a million bucks already, and finally has gotten around to issues on her website, which confirm her past in the links below. And she took a pass on discussing the issues in her 2018 House run. Add in that I'm generally uncomfortable with veterans running qua veterans, and pass? Yes, pass, as she's a "public option" person right now.

She's also a gun nut, and in the past, dipped at least one toe into the capital-L Libertarian politics world.

She's also refused to directly support single-payer and has opposed the weak-tea Democratic version of a Green New Deal.

She also, for whatever reason, was not at the Frisco debate.

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Amanda Edwards? I'm not from Houston, so I don't know as much about her background. She does have a website, but without an issues link. OTOH, in talking about her mom's cancer, and her dad's, she says she will work to "expand access to quality, affordable health care coverage."

In other words, she too opposes single payer.

And, overall, probably slots near Hegar.

"Be the solution"? That's Yevgeny Morozov "solutionism" bullshit to a T. Gack.

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Royce West? Outside of his work on racial profiling, a ConservaDem who couldn't mention "single payer" in his announcement. And, loaded with baggage. So much baggage that he's a bigger grifter than I ever before guessed. And, that's not just me calling him a ConservaDem. Rice political scientist Mark Jones, the speed-dial guy for Austin's equivalent of Beltway media, says he's more conservative than both Hegar and Edwards.

That said, I'll disagree that Hegar is "radical." She was a Republican, for doorknob's sake, as late as 2017. See above for more.

Dear Mopac equivalent of Beltway stenos: Take Mark Jones out of your Rolodex with him uttering such stupidity.

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Chris Bell? A ConservaDem period, and an ethics hack. Other than his now 15-year-old "Mr. Ethics Guy" stance against Bug Man Tom DeLay, what does he actually have to run on? Best I can figure is he hoped to corral Houston votes before Edwards jumped in and ConservaDem votes before either West jumped in or it became clear that Hegar herself is in many ways a ConservaDem. (And, if she doesn't win the primary, maybe she'll enter perennial candidate territory.)

On the big, top-notch issue? I would crap my pants if I heard Bell supported single-payer national health care. That's how doubtful I am that he supports the idea.

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Adrian Ocegueda? Behind even Sema on name recognition and probably on money. Still trying to pass off his technocrat wonkery as a key campaign issue. Pass. OTOH, since Sema apparently still ain't at $5K maybe he is ahead of her on money.

On the big, key issue? Based on his "policy wonk" answers to issues questionnaires when he ran for gov in 2018, I'm sure he's against single payer, too.

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Some "Jack Daniel Foster" is out there, but on Ballotpedia, can't even spell Frederick Douglass correctly.

And now (why?) Midland City Councilcritter John B. Love III has decided to enter the race on "small town values."

Thanks to Drew Springer, I don't have to worry about dodging the Dem primary to sign a Green ballot access petition. Thanks to the wedge his bill opened, if we're lucky, other minor parties and independents will have lower hurdles for that in the future.

That said, right now, unless Sema does a mea culpa, Cooper clarifies some positions or Ramirez does the same, I'd undervote this race. (File that purity test in your not a professional political organization blog world Juanita Jean.) I want to keep my powder options dry, in case some independent, or the SPUSA, gets ballot ideas, first.

Second, Sema is (was? tell me that your Bob the Knob bromance didn't affect this, either) the only one I know of to actually support single payer. I started this two months ago precisely to let other candidates post websites with issues stances, etc. Speaking of, should we expect more Bob on a Knob type political stances from Ramirez in weeks and months ahead?

Third? An interesting tidbit. Ramirez and Hegar are both using the same DC campaign consultant shop.

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To all the Dems called out for having websites that are nothing but big donate buttons? I called out Greens in the past for trying to run campaigns entirely on Facebook. This is only a small bit better.

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Way-too-early guesstimates?

Hegar becomes the ConservaDem rallying candidate. That squeezes out Bell, of course. Royce is squeezed out by a younger, more attractive, cleaner centrist black Democrat, Edwards. Ramirez gets the Beto cult and serious-minded more liberal Democrats.

Two of those three make the runoff. But which two? And yes, there will be a runoff.

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Cornyn now has his first primary challenger. "Reagan Republican" Mark Yancey has jumped in the race, to run from Cornyn's left within today's Texas GOP; 2014 GOP opponent Dwayne Stovall, with very little splash, was already in; that said, Stovall was second-highest vote-getter among Cornyn's several 2014 primary foes.

State Sen. Pat Fallon, a Drew Springer buddy and a wingnut indeed, is rumored to be eyeing the race. Cornyn recently rounded up and released a bunch of endorsements to try to fend that off. And, yes, Fallon is wingnut indeed. I know the Tea Party guy, and four years ago, D Mag said he was as bad as Former Fetus Forever Fuckwad Jonathan Stickland. Fallon's not up for state senate re-election until 2022, like Royce West.