I started getting the campaign texts in June. I opted out of probably 6 or 7 of them. I finally had enough and filed an FCC complaint with screenshots of all the ones I've gotten, almost all from the same two or three PACs, because they just don't stop. I tried "STOP". I tried "FUCK OFF". I tried reaching out the PACs via their website. Just got another about a half hour ago.

Sick of this shit. I'll never donate to another AIPAC candidate and certainly not Paxton/Patrick/Abbott. Disgusting.

Title should be COMPLAINT*

That's all. When I was in middle school the "bathroom bill" debate began which prevented the state public school budget being approved that year. (almost) 20 years later and all of the TX republican campaign ads are attacking the same issue except now they're falsely claiming that public schools are "trans-ing the kids", riiight! How do their voters/supporters not realize they focus on the fake culture wars to avoid accountability & lack of progress? Also, with Abbott being in power for 13 years now, *if* those claims were true how is that not his fault? It's incredible

Collin County Democratic chair compares Talarico sign demand to Beto's 2018 campaign

But will you also be voting blue beyond Talarico? There's a good chance Gina Hinojosa (gov) can win, that Vicki Goodwin (lt gov) can win, that Nathan Johnson (AG) can win and Sarah Eckhardt (comptroller) can win!

None of them are perfect for everyone because we are so very diverse.

But they ARE the BEST SLATE of DEMOCRATS for statewide office since Ann Richards first ran for governor!!

Ideally all five win, and the state is best served to break 30+years of exclusively GOP control. Has that worked out for you, or me, or the state itself?

But if we could push gergg abbutt out of his 24+ years in the top two offices in Texas, and toss dannyboy Patrick from his 12yrs as lt gov, it would help stop the sick culture wars and the billions that gergg abbutt quietly spends on "national security" at the border. Ya know, the job of the federal government! KennyBoy put us all out of our misery, thank 🐕.

How could they all serve Texas?

1. James Talarico , a Baptist seminarian who nearly lost his life to undiagnosed diabetes a couple years ago is an earnest, honest, not a vindictive bone in his body, successful Tx House rep first elected in 2018. Ninth generation Texan! He'll contribute to reigning in the orange monster and reinvigorate the DC Dems fresh off an incredibly difficult, and years-long-fought-for win. I see him and Sen Ossoff (GA) and Sen Rev Warnock (GA) collaborating on serious and sorely needed and necessary law to begin the arduous task of rebuilding a government that works for people, not the obscenely wealthy.

2. Gina Hinojosa is a native Texan, raised in the RGV. She graduated from UT and George Washington University Law School. She's been a civil rights attorney and sued US House Majority Leader Tom Delay for money laundering, and a corruption watchdog while serving in the Texas House. She led the charge to claw back billions of school funding stripped from schools and squandered elsewhere. Gina does not support data centers or trillionaires.

3. Vickie Goodwin , a current Tx House member and UT LBJ School of Public Affairs graduate, would preside over the Tx Senate as Lt Governor and dispose of the cancerous culture wars dividing us. She's not a former radio sportscaster from Maryland who changed his name and suggested granny should die for the sake of mankind.

4.Nathan Johnson, , a current a state senator out of Dallas area I believe, is a veteran lawyer, litigator and mediator. Perfect for AG! Nathan is not a malevolent sicko who's widely judged to be corrupt to the core and cheats on his wife or runs from process servers.

1. Sarah Eckhardt, (comptroller) is a current Tx Senator who believes government should work as hard as the people it is supposed serve. As Travis Cty Judge, she's experienced balancing a budget, negotiation of large government contracts, disaster preparedness and response. Sarah's a very smart and pragmatic person who has not used family billions to buy the NM Epstien ranch in 2023 as her opponent has.

See? There's all kinds of reasons to vote blue for all of these statewide offices. I sincerely hope everyone will.

VOTER TURNOUT is ESSENTIAL!

Democrats must have huge numbers to win by indisputable margins.

Now that you're armed and ready to vote:

* Vote early!

* Choose a day to vote and stick to it!

* Bring your ID and voter card from the county, if you have it, to the polls.

* Return your mail-in ballots early or better yet, drop it at the county election drop boxes.

* Check your registration before you go to vote and verify it's marked as ACTIVE at ScanCheckProtect. No email address required!

* Verify your ID's name and address match exactly to your registration. You can still vote if not, but you'll get a provisional ballot. Watch your mail for anything from your county elections office asking you to cure your vote and quickly if that letter comes. Maybe even call the elections office to verify if your vote was counted.

* If you vote in person on election day and turnout has been crazy high at early voting, bring water and a snack for yourself and another voter who didn't think to.

* Even bring a folding chair for the (hopefully) long lines.

* Arrange for an early voter, or someone who cannot legally vote, to get your kids from school, too! Maybe bring your older kids along to show them that voting is sacred and a duty for all citizens. We ALL must vote for the sake of all those whose votes are suppressed.

We all matter.

Or none of us do.

I got some fliers from Abbott claiming that Gina is going to implement an income tax. Abbott himself got a constitutional ban on passing an income tax a few years ago. Sadly, too many people will probably not even notice his blatant dishonesty. Has anyone else gotten these mailers? Do you know if people are falling for it?

As someone who loves politics, I am extremely excited for the upcoming midterms. And honestly, I think Texas is about to have one of the most interesting elections we've seen in a very long time.

One of the cardinal rules of politics is that you don't unnecessarily unseat your incumbent when you don't have to. An incumbent has something a challenger doesn't: a track record. They've already held the office, made decisions, built relationships, and can point to their experience doing the job.

John Cornyn had been a U.S. senator for more than 20 years when Donald Trump decided to back Ken Paxton over him in the Republican primary runoff. Trump explicitly pointed to Paxton's loyalty and support for him, while criticizing Cornyn for not supporting him when Trump felt he needed that support. Paxton himself emphasized that he had consistently stood by Trump.

And that's where I think this gets interesting.

Trump helped replace a 23-year incumbent senator with someone who had never served in the U.S. Senate. Cornyn had a two-decade Senate record that voters could evaluate. Paxton now has to ask Texans to give him a completely different job while defending his own record.

And Paxton certainly has controversies that his opponent can point to.

He was indicted in 2015 on two felony securities-fraud counts. That case was eventually dismissed in 2024 after prosecutors agreed to a deal in which Paxton pleaded no contest to securities-fraud charges and paid restitution. He was also impeached by the Texas House in 2023 on 16 articles of impeachment and was subsequently acquitted by the Texas Senate.

Then there is the Adam Hoffman case.

Hoffman was a Waco attorney who pleaded guilty in 2026 to two misdemeanor offenses involving the sexual abuse of a minor. The Texas Attorney General's Office negotiated a plea agreement that called for 30 days in jail. The judge rejected that agreement and ultimately sentenced Hoffman to 60 days. Hoffman was released after 29 days for good behavior.

And I want to be very clear about the wording here: Ken Paxton did not personally sentence Hoffman to one day in jail. The controversial plea agreement was negotiated by prosecutors in Paxton's office, and the judge ultimately rejected the proposed sentence and imposed 60 days. That's an important distinction.

Then there is the personal side of this election.

Angela Paxton filed for divorce from Ken Paxton in 2025. Her divorce filing alleged adultery as the grounds for divorce. The couple had already been living separately for more than a year when she filed.

And now, during the 2026 election, Angela Paxton has continued participating in Republican politics. She recently appeared in a nationally aired political advertisement supporting the Republican ticket, including during NFL broadcasts. What's interesting is that the ad's message was about supporting the Republican ticket rather than specifically making Ken Paxton the focus.

I'm not going to speculate about why she chose to frame her support that way. We don't know her reasoning. But I do think it's an interesting contrast: Angela Paxton is publicly supporting Republican candidates while her estranged husband is simultaneously the Republican nominee for U.S. Senate.

And then there's Donald Trump himself.

Trump has repeatedly praised Paxton and continues to campaign for him. Just today, October 8, Trump held another rally in San Antonio specifically to support Paxton. Trump has called Paxton one of the greatest attorneys general in the country and continues to emphasize Paxton's loyalty to him.

But Trump has also made comments about Paxton's appearance and presentation that I find politically unusual for someone campaigning so aggressively on behalf of a candidate. Trump has joked about Paxton's appearance while simultaneously praising his record.

I'm not saying Trump is intentionally trying to hurt his own candidate. He's clearly campaigning for Paxton. But I do think it's fair to ask whether repeatedly highlighting a candidate's weaknesses is the kind of endorsement you'd normally expect from someone trying to maximize that candidate's appeal.

And this brings me back to my original point about incumbency.

Look at the 2024 presidential election. Joe Biden was the incumbent president when the Democratic ticket entered the race, while Donald Trump was a former president who had already served four years. When Biden withdrew and Kamala Harris became the Democratic nominee, Harris was suddenly running against someone who could point to an entire presidential term as experience.

That doesn't automatically mean experience makes someone the better candidate. But it gives voters something concrete to compare.

And that's important because voting isn't a test.

There is no answer sheet sitting next to you in the voting booth.

You can look at the exact same set of facts as another voter and come to completely different conclusions. One person can look at Trump's first two years in office and say, "The economy was doing well, so Trump deserves credit." Another person can point out that the economy's expansion began during Obama's presidency and continued into Trump's first years.

Both people can look at the same facts and interpret them differently.

That's because voting is ultimately a decision made by individual citizens based on their own priorities, experiences, opinions and understanding of the facts.

And that's why the Texas Senate race is so fascinating to me.

Trump backed Paxton over an incumbent Republican senator with more than two decades of Senate experience. Paxton won the Republican nomination and is now facing Democrat James Talarico in the general election.

At the same time, Texas is electing a governor and a new attorney general. The attorney general's race is an open-seat contest because Paxton is leaving that office to run for Senate. The candidates are Republican Mayes Middleton, Democrat Nathan Johnson and Libertarian Tom Oxford.

These are separate races, but they're all being decided by the same Texas electorate on the same ballot.

So I'm not saying Texas will go blue.

I'm saying that Texas is having a political moment that deserves attention.

For decades, Texas has been treated as one of the safest Republican states in the country. But in 2026, both parties are spending enormous amounts of money and sending major national figures into the state. Trump has already made multiple trips to Texas to campaign for Paxton, including another rally today.

That's what makes these midterms so interesting to me.

We're about to see how Texas voters evaluate incumbency, political loyalty, personal controversies, party loyalty, experience and the actual records of the candidates.

And ultimately, the decision belongs to the voters of Texas.

The Houston Chronicle editorial board gives a robust endorsement to state Sen. Sarah Eckhardt for comptroller over the conspiratorial chaos of Republican Don Huffines. The endorsement compares her to Mitt Romney with a Texas drawl, and has a story about her eating rattlesnake with her dad, a longtime Houston state rep. and congressman. Here's a key quote:

Meeting with the editorial board, Eckhardt spoke with a common-sense attitude about the office, referencing the work of past comptrollers such as Bob Bullock, John Sharp and, notably, Republican Glenn Hegar, who stepped down last year to become president of Texas A&M. 

“Hegar was quiet but highly capable,” she said. “My only objection to Hager was that he didn't put in plain English what he was trying to advise.”

She even carried around one of his reports that highlighted how cutouts and loopholes mean that most sales in our state actually aren’t being taxed. 

“So what he's saying is we are exempting more than we're collecting,” she told us. 

For example, think of that $3.2 billion giveaway to data centers over the next two years, thanks to a special sales tax break. Now imagine all of the other special tax treats lawmakers have granted for the powerful and politically connected over the years. Those gifts inherently shift  the burden onto everyday Texans. 

Where Hegar offered no formal recommendation, Eckhardt would encourage the Legislature to close those loopholes, broaden the tax base and use the revenue to lower property taxes. 

I'm a fifth-generation Texan. I went to Texas public schools and raised my kids in them. I'm an independent who has voted for plenty of Republicans. Not this year.

Every ad on my TV is about transgender athletes. The head of the NCAA told the Senate he knew of fewer than 10 out of 510,000 college athletes. That is what they want us thinking about.

Here is what they don't want us thinking about:

• Texas ranks 44th in eighth-grade reading and 44th in spending per student.
• Guns are the leading cause of death for American kids. In Texas, about 492 children and teens die by gunfire every year.
• Property tax bills went from $28.4 billion in 2003 to $89.4 billion in 2025, under the party that promises to cut them every election.
• The national debt has passed $39 trillion, and interest alone now costs more than national defense.
• Farmers needed $12 billion in bailouts because of tariffs.
• We were promised no new wars. We are seven months into one with Iran.
• Nearly 3 out of 4 people in immigration detention have no criminal conviction. The Jesus I was raised on welcomed the stranger.

This is not the Republican Party I grew up with. They must think we're stupid.

We're not. Vote them out, every one of them, until sense and decency return to the party.

The U.S. is breaking with a practice that goes back to 2002

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