Okay.
Mark Gonzalez
The embattled district attorney for Nueces County, Mark Gonzalez, announced Tuesday that he will enter the Democratic primary to challenge U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas.
By announcing his campaign, Gonzalez resigned his current position — a significant development given that local conservative activists have been working to oust him for months.
“I was such a threat they tried to remove me from office,” Gonzalez said in an announcement video as it showed the tattooed Gonzalez hopping on a motorcycle. “Now, it became clear to me — and to all of us — that there isn’t one of us, a real American, in Washington, representing real Americans.”
[…]
In the announcement video, Gonzalez echoed other Democrats in knocking Cruz over his 2021 trip to Cancun during the deadly winter freeze in Texas. But Gonzalez also opened up about his own criminal background, saying he was arrested for drunk driving when he was 19 years old, pleaded guilty and “worked hard for a second chance.”
Gonzalez’s time as the top prosecutor in Nueces County, home to Corpus Christi, has been a nationally watched flashpoint for the progressive criminal justice movement. A local conservative activist, Colby Wiltse, filed a petition in January to remove Gonzalez from office, accusing him of “incompetency, official misconduct, and failure to give bond.” A trial is scheduled to start in December, though Gonzalez said Monday his resignation makes the issue moot.
In a resignation letter to Gov. Greg Abbott, Gonzalez said he refuses to be a “sacrificial lamb to send a foreboding message to other duly elected DAs in Texas who exercise their discretion.”
Gonzalez was among five district attorneys in Texas who vowed last year not to pursue abortion-related criminal charges if Roe v. Wade was overturned. He previously promised not to prosecute families for receiving gender-affirming care for transgender minors.
You can see a copy of that complaint here, via the Caller Times. It certainly sounds like a political attack Gonzalez, who won in 2016 and 2020 despite the Former Guy carrying Nueces County each time, and it would not have been able to proceed without the official imprimatur of the Republican County Attorney. The Times wrote about Gonzalez and this fight as part of a longer story about the backlash to progressive prosecutors across the country.
Objectively, Gonzalez sounds like a very interesting candidate. He’s actually won twice in non-friendly territory, which is no small feat. If he were the first candidate of substance to enter, or if the only other Dems running were not what I would want, I’d be excited about him. As it is, with Colin Allred and Roland Gutierrez already in the race, my initial reaction was “okay, but why?” I’m happy to have a contested primary as already noted, but I don’t see what expanding the field further does for us. (Raise your hand if you think the super-sized 2020 Senate primary field enhanced the experience for anyone.) Also, resigning from the office you had vowed to fight for so that you can run for something else feels a bit like a mixed message, and that’s before taking into account the possibility that the “rigged Republican game” as he put it will continue anyway.
I dunno. Like I said, he’d be an exciting candidate in a field that didn’t already have a couple of perfectly viable candidates. I’ll say this much, if we wind up with a special election for Attorney General in 2024, I will be first on the bus for a Mark Gonzalez candidacy in that race. We’ll see what happens. Daily Kos, the Chron, and the Current have more.
Never quit one job unless you have another job in hand has always been my approach… Don’t look good when you (pre)bail on your existing constituents.
He is an attorney, so I don’t think finding another job was a consideration for him.
Several Spanish surname persons are running, so the chances of any of them winning the primary are slim.
Cheap way to get publicity. I always thought that is why Dick ran for every position.
https://ballotpedia.org/United_States_Senate_election_in_Texas,_2024
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