Thoughts On The 2022 Dem Primary

I’m going over the candidate list that Erik Manning is completing for the 2022 Dem Primary and I’m already seeing some races of interest. Here are a few:

From the looks of it, it looks like we will be keeping Lizzie Fletcher as a member of Congress, CD7, who came out unopposed in the primary. Of course, the redraw had me losing Congressman Al Green, and now my sis up in Cypress has lost Fletcher. In fact, Fletcher is going to be repping a more Democratic and diverse district with a lot more area that she has not represented. If her office is as responsive as she has been with folks she represented, we’ll be fine and she’ll be around for awhile.

Beto O’Rourke will likely be our gubernatorial candidate despite having a few opponents. Let’s face it, he’s been everywhere in the state and has a good infrastructure. He’s in the best position to rep us and beat Abbott.

There are three in the run for Lt. Governor. Mike Collier is the one who has been in the running the longest, but two female opponents (Michelle Beckley and TSU Prof/TDP Vice Chair Carla Brailey) will make the race interesting. I’m leaning Mike because he’s been everywhere in Texas and not just aiming for regional acceptance to get the nomination.

The AG race will be a tough one for me. I’ve known Joe Jaworski since his days as Galveston mayor and I like that he’s been everywhere in Texas. Lee Merritt says all the right things. And Rochelle Garza is the South Texan in the race who has worked in civil rights through ACLU. I’m just going to sit in the cheap seats and watch for a while.

Comptroller of Public Accounts has a Fort Bend area guy by the name of Angel Luis Vega. He had contemplated running for CD-22 but looks like he landed on this one. Don’t recognize the other names but Vega did send me a FB friend request. Sometimes, it’s all about trying, right?

General Land Commissioner race has Jinny Suh, whom I’ve mentioned before. There has been talk of Jay Kleberg of the King Ranch people. Not a fan of King Ranch’s history with Mexicanos, but we’ll get into that later.

The race for State Rep 147 to replace Garnet Coleman will be an interesting one. A couple of faves are Reagan Flowers and Aurelia Wagner. But I’ll be watching from the cheap seats.

The area Court of Appeals races and a couple of statewide judicial races have my attention. I see sitting District Judges running for a promotion and that’s great. They’re good people. But if/when they were to win, whomever is governor gets to name their replacement. I guess we need to work extra hard for Beto, then.

The race for the 14th Court Place 2 has long time District Judge Kyle Carter versus Cheri Thomas. Cheri ran in 2020 for an appellate position and is well-liked. It’s easy to coalesce behind a popular sitting judge, but the thought of Abbott possibly getting to replace a couple of them makes me uneasy. It gives me more respect for Judge Ravi Sandill who was also running for an appellate seat but withdrew to stay in his current seat.

The race for County Commissioner Pct 4 ended up with six candidates: Leslie Briones, Gina Calanni, Benjamin Chou, Clarence Miller, Jeffery Stauber, and Ann Williams. I’ve mentioned three here who announced with much excitement, and the others I have not heard from in the form of some communication. But it’s still early…sorta. The possibility of a run-off is strong in this one, so, we may see each of the candidates playing to their immediate fan base to get enough for the run-off. Of course, if there were to be some sort of coalescing behind one who has institutional support, then, it would not surprise me. Let’s hope they make it exciting.

County Commish Adrian Garcia is being challenged by long-time JP George Risner and one other unknown. What’s up with that? Either you support what the Democratic majority on the court has done or you want to play to the right and cause division among Democrats.

County Judge Lina Hidalgo ended up with a few challengers who should be negligible. There may be one who has enough support to cause annoyance but it all depends on how that candidate challenges her. Hidalgo has led the county effectively through this pandemic, and, thankfully, a Democratic majority on Commissioner’s Court has helped pass various funding and reform packages despite right-wing opposition. Never has county government been this accessible. Now, if a Democratic challenger is going to whine about it and somehow call this “division” because the Republicans are acting like whiny idiots whose only answer to good policy is “NO!”, well, go for it and see if trying to divide our Party over pandemic decisions works. I’m with Lina.

This is just a quick overview of what’s catching my eye. Once the campaigning begins beyond the Christmas party selfies, I hope we learn more about the candidates.