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Texas GOP Chairman Allen West announced Sunday he is running for governor, challenging fellow Republican Greg Abbott.
The announcement was made during at appearance by West at Sojourn Church in Carrollton, where the former Florida congressman played a video launching his campaign.
“I’ve not been in elected political office for about a decade, but I can no longer sit on the sidelines and see what has happened in these United States of America and … the place that I call home,” West said in the video, which was preceded by West reading aloud the Declaration of Independence to the churchgoers gathering on July Fourth.
West’s campaign launch comes about a month after he announced his resignation as state party chairman. The resignation is effective July 11, when the State Republican Executive Committee is set to meet to pick West’s successor as chair.
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West did not directly mention Abbott in his remarks Sunday in the church or in the video. West used the video to sketch out a platform focused on shielding the state’s energy resources against the Green New Deal — the sweeping climate change proposal pushed by some Democrats in Washington, D.C. — securing the state’s border “to ensure that Texas is for Texans” and combatting sex trafficking.
You can see the launch video, if you have a deeply masochistic streak and literally nothing else to do, in this Twitter thread. Look, we all know that Allen West is a malignant idiot who has no place being within a thousand miles of political power. The extent to which a Governor West would be a disaster are impossible to fathom. One can easily find comfort in thinking that the addition of this fool into the Republican primary for Governor weakens the Republicans overall, but while there may be some truth to that there has been a lot of real damage done in the meantime, as Abbott’s entire plan for the Legislature has been to shore up his right flank against an assault from the likes of Allen West. We’ll be living with those effects for years no matter what happens in 2022. And, not to put too fine a point on it, there’s no evidence to suggest that a crazier and more malevolent Republican is less electable statewide – Ted Cruz, Dan Patrick, Ken Paxton, and Sid Miller are Exhibits A through D against that proposition. So go ahead and have your laugh at the ridiculous Allen West and his third-grade graphic design skills – it is the response he deserves – but don’t let that make you think his candidacy can or should be dismissed as a joke. It’s deadly serious, and we need to treat it as such.
Not sure what Kuffner means by;
“but don’t let that make you think his candidacy can or should be dismissed as a joke. It’s deadly serious, and we need to treat it as such.”
What exactly can Democrats do other than vote in the Republican primary?
I say enjoy the show and hope the Democrats come up with good candidates.
Oh this is going to be fun. I keep waiting for West to reveal that he is an actor and that this is all performance art for a documentary. Stay tuned.
West or Don Huffines, either one of them has a decent shot at booting Abbott in the primary. It would be best, though, for only one of the two to run, so all the anti-Abbott voters coalesce on one candidate.
I would hate to see Abbott win like Gov. Good Hair Perry, because the opposition vote was split.
Having said that, Abbott is only acting like a real America First governor now, because he is rightfully scared of being tossed for the blackouts and the business, job, and soul crushing lockdown mandates.
Bill, that doesn’t matter because if the anti-Abbott vote is >50% it would go to a runoff.
Kuff goes: “Lord help us.”
What Lord? — If there is one, he is already with West. Who styles himself as a fighter for God, country, and Texas. In that order. You might say such ranking of objects of veneration makes him a crusader. And in that framing of what lies ahead, the infidels to be vanquished are gay wedding-cake insisters and sundry progressives. God-forsaken characters. Like Mr. Kuff and most of his readership.
So it was only fitting that West would use a church service to launch his campaign, and that he would be asking for blessings and prayers in support of his mission, not just donations.
He also tapped into British history and brought up Thomas More standing up for God against the King, and paying the final price for it: head removal. The finer point will likley elude the audience. Namely, that King Henry VIII broke with the Pope and the principle of lifelong monogamy, and went on to establish a new more liberal state church to better suit his matrimonial and reproductive agenda.
So is West on the Anglo Protestant or the Cathrine the Catholic side here? It’s not an issue that’s overt, but what is clear is that religion plays a central part in his bid for the throne, and that opposition to social change trumps denominational differences. That however doesn’t distinguish him much from Abbott, who enjoys warm, if not enthusiastic, support from the evangelical and pro-life communities, and mixes religion and politics just as comfortably.
The same point of no-difference can be made about other themes, namely The Alamo, the importance of border protection, opposition to same-sex marriage, law and order, and sex trafficking. No perceptible policy differences there. Nor does West have anything critical to say about Abbott, his leadership style, or his penchant to rule by decree. At least not yet. Though he had gone that route before.
That leaves the matter of Abbott being on the roll in a wheelchair, while West can cast himself as a warrior. Sword drawn, no less. And he has the military background to make the macho posture credible. Will that be the tie-breaker, to the extent one is needed? It’s doubtful, for Abbott has a track record of being pro-business (a weak spot for West) and Republican voters are pleased with his job performance by a wide margin. Abbott’s disability has been no obstacle to electoral success. It provides, much rather, an inspiration for others who have been dealt fateful blows and can likewise muster the determination to overcome. With the help of God. Never mind the blessings of a functioning civil liability system that had proven its worth for Abbott when a tree branch fell out of the sky without prior notice.
At best, West will put a few folks on the GOP side in a quandary, many of whom will come out for Abbott as a safer bet in the end. And Abbott already has all that money to finance a media-heavy campaign, if needed. West will find himself to be the beggar for campaign donations, not just the carpetbagger. Regarding the latter, he did handle it in a very clever way, by putting himself in the mold of Sam Houston also having made his way to Texas from Tennessee, where West went to university.
That leaves for West the role of spoiler should he run as an independent. Since only a plurality is required to win in the general election, he might even have a viable chance of beating Abbott, especially if he manages to attract conservative black voters and manages to mobilize previous nonvoters. And Abbott would be facing opponents on two fronts in a three-way contest.
If West takes on Abbott in the Republican primary, as is widely assumed, it should be interesting to watch. And since West is black, it wouldn’t just be an intraparty affair. Abbott’s COVID response will likely have become a non-issue by then, so what will they be trading barbs over, with the prime bone of contention having been buried?
REMEMBERING THE ALAMO, AND WEST GOING SOUTH
To make it official on the Fourth of July was a smart move, if for no other reason than to dominate the news. Not to mention tying the occasion to the Alamo, which has nothing to do with it, if you come to think of it. But Texas mythology, once again fodder for partisan strife these days, was thus embedded in festive national patriotism.
But let’s not forget the bottom line here: It was the Alamoists that lost the battle. Will Allen West go down like those defenders, figuratively speaking, and thus secure his own place in the Lone Star pantheon of glorious losers?
FORGET THE ALAMO, AND GO HIGH!
Perhaps the presumptive Democratic candidate should book the San Jacinto battlegrounds for a rally and reflection, at the pool. With a monumental landmark in the background. A testament not only to victory, but to progress — not mention skyhigh achievement — in Lone Star achitecture, and public works.
And use the monument as a metaphor for great vision, from atop, under the 220-ton 34-foot Texas-sized star.
Reference: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Works_Progress_Administration
“Perhaps the presumptive Democratic candidate should book the San Jacinto battlegrounds for a rally and reflection, at the pool.”
My question is, why? Given the enthusiastic support for open borders, and Biden’s colonization of the US with foreigners by the DNC today, how is announcing a candidacy at a place where Texas successfully repelled the Mexicans and sent them packing going to look?
If that fight was happening today, today’s left would side with the Santa Ana and the Meixcans, vs. the Texians. Probably many of the Texians were huwyte supremacists, too, even though they fought along heroic Mexicans like Juan Seguin. But hey, Juan and the others weren’t real Mexicans. That’s how this goes, right?
If the primary election is delayed to summer due to redistricting, the odds for West upsetting Gov. Abbott in the primary increase, a la Cruz v. Dewhurst.
West would remain a favorite against any Democrat candidate statewide in November, and might replicate the pattern of former President Trump with increased black male support and the contemporaneous loss of support from suburban college educated women.
Dewhurst got beat, despite his bankroll, because the Tea Party/America First/MAGA folks have successfully hijacked the (R) party. Don’t expect a Chamber of Commerce type R to win anything in Texas, at least for a while.
WHO’S AFRAID OF ALLEN WEST ?
Re: Abbott vs. West policy differences
Leaving aside the fierce Founding Father channeling rhetoric, Allen West does have a policy agenda and some of it is at odds with what Abbott has been doing.
That includes West’s already well-documented opposition to the use of distaster and emergency declarations as an excuse to expand the powers of the executive branch to interfere with individual liberties. West professes a more general opposition which is not just limited to COVID shutdowns on nonessential businesses. So that larger issue will not be moot in the forthcoming West vs. Abbott contest, even if the pandemic, and its handling, fade from the agenda. This is in line with West’s committment to minimize the role of government in his beloved “Republic of Texas”.
West’s distinctive policy positions were not so clear from the campaign launch video, but they come into focus upon a review of his campaign website, where he sets forth what he would do (and not do) as governor.
THE HILL has since quoted West as saying that he is not running against anyone, referencing THE TEXAN (which is paywalled) as the source. This was apparently in reaction to media reports to the effect that West is challenging Abbott in the GOP primary. A review of West’s writing makes it clear that he is running against someone: Karl Marx.
That’s a bit quaint and curious. Who is a afraid of Virgina Woolf? might have greater resonance.
Seriously, do Texans remember Karl Marx? Or the Marx Brothers, for that matter?
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ANTI-LEFTIST STRONGMAN ALLEN WEST & THE PARTY DUOPOLY
Re: THE HILL has since quoted West as saying that he is not running against anyone, referencing THE TEXAN (which is paywalled) as the source.
This was falsely attributed. It appeared in POLITICO, not THE HILL.
The passage is a follows:
West told The Texan: “I’m not running against anybody. I’m running for Texas.” And he later tweeted: “Maybe you heard about this today? Your prayers are appreciated.
URL: https://www.politico.com/news/2021/07/04/allen-west-running-for-governor-of-texas-498057
THE HILL sourced and repackaged the TEXAS TRIBUNE story by Patrick Svitek. See Olafimihan Oshin, ‘Allen West announces GOP primary challenge to Abbott in Texas’ THE HILL (July 4, 2021).
Both stories take a GOP primary challenge for granted.
In an essay on “Meaningless Designations” however, Allen says this: “The flawed reasoning that one must vote for Republicans or else allow a Democrat to win is no longer acceptable.”
In his view, “Constitutional Conservatives” like himself are needed to defeat progressive socialism, Marxism, communism, statism, Critical Race Theory, and anarachism. The “R” alone won’t do.
So, that sounds more like a desire to take over the Republican Party and remake it in his own image, or replace it with something different. West had previously taken over the Texas GOP, however, and is now stepping down as its chair. So what exactly is he stepping up to … to win the “ideological battle” against the forces of evil?
Could he perhaps be thinking about rallying his supporters into a raiding party of patriotic Constitutional Conservatives that will march to the sound of guns and battle cries to decimate the RINOs?
Are we one step closer to a multi-party system?