Tag Archives: President

Beto ends his Presidential campaign

Posted on November 2, 2019 by Charles Kuffner

It was fun while it lasted. Beto O’Rourke is dropping out of the presidential race. The former El Paso congressman announced the decision Friday evening, ahead of a major Democratic gathering here in Iowa. “Though it is difficult to accept, … Continue reading →

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Warren’s interest in boosting Texas Dems

Posted on October 27, 2019 by Charles Kuffner

I heartily approve of this. As Elizabeth Warren climbs the polls — threatening Joe Biden’s lead in the Democratic primary — her campaign is turning its attention to Texas, a state she called home for a decade and a place … Continue reading →

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Julián Castro will not be running for Senate, either

Posted on October 2, 2019 by Charles Kuffner

In case you were wondering. Julián Castro said Saturday at the Texas Tribune Festival that he would not seek the Democratic nomination to challenge U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, in 2020 even if he were to drop out of the … Continue reading →

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Will Hurd has delusions about running for President

Posted on September 30, 2019 by Charles Kuffner

Sure, buddy. U.S. Rep. Will Hurd said Thursday he is considering a run for president in 2024. The third-term Republican congressman from Helotes is leaving the House at the end of this term, and his retirement announcement sent shockwaves throughout … Continue reading →

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One thing our state loves spending money on

Posted on September 28, 2019 by Charles Kuffner

Defending unconstitutional anti-abortion laws in the courts. As Texas defends abortion laws in federal court that mandate fetal burials and seek to outlaw certain medical procedures, the state has been ordered to pay pro-abortion attorneys $2.5 million — fortifying women’s … Continue reading →

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UT-Tyler: Trump still looks weak in Texas

Posted on September 22, 2019 by Charles Kuffner

Two months later, there may be a story line to watch. Beto O’Rourke remains competitive against President Donald Trump in a Texas head-to-head matchup, according to a poll released Thursday by the Center for Opinion Research at the University of … Continue reading →

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The TDP 2020 plan

Posted on September 14, 2019 by Charles Kuffner

Bring it on. The Texas Democratic Party is pulling back the curtain on its 2020 strategy ahead of the Houston presidential debate, releasing a plan to flip the state that targets 2.6 million potential Democratic voters who are not registered … Continue reading →

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Quinnipiac: Lots of Texans don’t intend to vote for Trump

Posted on September 12, 2019 by Charles Kuffner

More nice polling news. President Trump’s job approval rating remains marginally underwater in Texas, with 45 percent of registered voters saying that they approve and 50 percent saying that they disapprove. Thinking ahead to 2020, 48 percent of Texas voters … Continue reading →

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Univision News poll: Trump 42, Dem 47

Posted on September 11, 2019 by Charles Kuffner

Here’s a fun poll. Days away from the third Democratic debate in Houston and over a year from the 2020 presidential election, an exclusive poll by Univision News found that 40% of registered voters in the state say they will … Continue reading →

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The Harris County GOP thinks it can come back in 2020

Posted on September 10, 2019 by Charles Kuffner

They’re so adorable. Once a rock of Republican politics in Texas, Harris County has become nothing short of a nightmare for the GOP over the last four years as Hillary Clinton and Beto O’Rourke carried the county and Democrats dominated … Continue reading →

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A reminder about the local legislative races

Posted on September 1, 2019 by Charles Kuffner

Let’s review the facts together. State Rep. Jon Rosenthal wasn’t supposed to win his Texas House seat last year. He was too much of a Democrat for the swath of northwest Harris County that had long elected Republicans. But in … Continue reading →

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Yet another story about suburbs shifting away from Republicans

Posted on August 31, 2019 by Charles Kuffner

Collect the whole set! Texas is currently experiencing two trends that are favorable to Democrats: increasing urbanization, and big demographic shifts. The Texas Tribune recently reported that Hispanics are expected to become the largest demographic group in the state by 2022, with … Continue reading →

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Our all-important metro areas

Posted on August 27, 2019 by Charles Kuffner

Another look at the trouble Republicans face in Texas now. The key to Texas’ political future is whether it finally follows the geographic realignment that has transformed the politics of many other states over the past quarter century. Across the … Continue reading →

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The psychological shift

Posted on August 23, 2019 by Charles Kuffner

I have three things to say about this. [Democratic operative Jason] Stanford has a theory about how [Texas Democratic] angst started. He says it began with the 1996 U.S. Senate race in Texas. Democrats were recovering from losing two years … Continue reading →

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Beto is still not running for Senate

Posted on August 18, 2019 by Charles Kuffner

Sorry, y’all. Beto O’Rourke will return to the presidential campaign trail Thursday for the first time since the Aug. 3 massacre of 22 people at a Walmart in his hometown by a suspect who told police he was hunting “Mexicans” … Continue reading →

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Once again with GOP anxiety

Posted on August 17, 2019 by Charles Kuffner

I recommend Xanax. Or, you know, marijuana. I’ve heard that’s good for anxiety. Republicans have long idealized Texas as a deep-red frontier state, home to rural conservatives who love President Donald Trump. But political turbulence in the sprawling suburbs and … Continue reading →

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Back to the Beto question

Posted on August 14, 2019 by Charles Kuffner

As in, should Beto abandon his run for President and come back to Texas to make another run for Senate? The Chron says Yes. There are times, it seems, in most presidential campaigns when the facades get stripped away like … Continue reading →

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Emerson’s weird polls

Posted on August 11, 2019 by Charles Kuffner

It’s a poll, so we do the thing. A new poll has former Vice President Joe Biden leading Beto O’Rourke in the Texas presidential primary and toppling Donald Trump in a head-to-head showdown. The survey, conducted by Emerson College for … Continue reading →

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By the way, Trump is also a deadbeat

Posted on August 7, 2019 by Charles Kuffner

It’s his brand. President Donald Trump publicly pledged “all the support of the federal government” on Saturday after 22 people were shot to death in an El Paso Walmart this weekend. But his statements are prompting charges of hypocrisy because the … Continue reading →

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That UT-Tyler poll

Posted on August 1, 2019 by Charles Kuffner

I suppose I have to talk about this. A poll conducted by the Center for Opinion Research at the University of Texas at Tyler showed [Beto O’Rourke] leading among Texas voters in the Democratic presidential primary. The survey showed O’Rourke … Continue reading →

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Dem debate will be at TSU

Posted on July 22, 2019 by Charles Kuffner

We have a location. Texas Southern University will host the third Democratic primary debate, scheduled for Sept. 12 and 13. The agreement between TSU and ABC News was announced on the network’s “This Week” show on Sunday morning. “As the … Continue reading →

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Libertarians and Greens sue over the petition process for ballot access

Posted on July 14, 2019 by Charles Kuffner

We’ll see about this. Ahead of the 2020 election cycle, a group of Texans, along with a number of nonmajor political parties, have sued the secretary of state’s office, alleging that Texas election law discriminates against third-party and independent candidates … Continue reading →

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Next Dem debate will be in Houston

Posted on July 11, 2019 by Charles Kuffner

Cool. The third debate in the Democratic presidential primary will be in Houston, party officials announced late Tuesday. The event, sponsored by ABC News and Univision, is scheduled for Sept. 12 and 13. “Texas is a battleground state, period,” Texas … Continue reading →

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Another cure for partisan redistricting

Posted on July 8, 2019 by Charles Kuffner

From the Brennan Center, written before SCOTUS lit a match to judicial remedies for partisan redistricting, and even more relevant now. Congressional redistricting is broken. In most states, districts are drawn by partisan lawmakers, and the manipulation of district boundaries … Continue reading →

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You want to be President, you’ve got to come to Houston

Posted on July 7, 2019 by Charles Kuffner

And so they are. No Democratic candidate for president has won Texas in over 40 years, and yet the flow of Democratic contenders coming through the state, and Houston specifically, has been unusually strong in 2019. Just since March, 14 … Continue reading →

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The lamentations of Big John

Posted on June 22, 2019 by Charles Kuffner

You guys, he may finally lose a race. I’m serious! There is no ghostwritten Cornyn memoir. His ego does not seem to live and die on how many times he appears on Sunday morning talk shows. And he’s never launched … Continue reading →

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Biden talks big about Texas

Posted on June 21, 2019 by Charles Kuffner

And other states, too. Democratic front-runner Joe Biden said Monday he plans to campaign during the general election and win in South Carolina, Georgia and Texas, states that have consistently supported Republicans for about four decades. “We plan on campaigning … Continue reading →

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UT/Trib: So this is what a swing state looks like

Posted on June 18, 2019 by Charles Kuffner

This is not the poll I’m looking for, but it still tells us something. Half of the registered voters in Texas would vote to reelect President Donald Trump, but half of them would not, according to the latest University of … Continue reading →

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Checking in on the national political atmosphere

Posted on June 13, 2019 by Charles Kuffner

From the inbox, via G. Elliott Morris’ weekly email blast: Are Democrats doing as well as they were in 2017-2018? The plural of “anecdote” is not “data”, but that’s what special elections and the generic ballot are for. These numbers … Continue reading →

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In which I plead for a boon from national writers

Posted on June 11, 2019 by Charles Kuffner

Dear national political writers: The former Texas congressman and one-time Senate hopeful has attended at least 67 Iowa town halls, driven nearly 3,000 miles across the state, and hired dozens of staffers there. He’s tall, white, charismatic, and handsome—traits that should serve … Continue reading →

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Could Beto-Cornyn still happen?

Posted on June 8, 2019 by Charles Kuffner

According to that same Quinnipiac poll, some people would like for it to happen. Most Texas Democrats say they’d prefer for former U.S. Rep. Beto O’Rourke to abandon his campaign for president and instead take on Republican incumbent U.S. Sen. … Continue reading →

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Still ridiculously early poll: Biden leads Trump by four

Posted on June 7, 2019 by Charles Kuffner

Encouraging, but the usual caveats apply. President Donald Trump is locked in too-close-to-call races with any one of seven top Democratic challengers in the 2020 presidential race in Texas, where former Vice President Joseph Biden has 48 percent to President … Continue reading →

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How Texas Republicans did not make their case to women this session

Posted on June 1, 2019 by Charles Kuffner

They did have a not-excessively-misogynist session, but see if you can spot what’s missing in this recap and preview story. Texas could have tried to beat Alabama to become the first state in the nation to ban all abortions this … Continue reading →

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The view to the next session

Posted on May 29, 2019 by Charles Kuffner

This legislative session was relatively free of drama (you can decide for yourself how substantive it was in other ways), but the forthcoming election season will be anything but, with control of the Legislature and all that means at stake. … Continue reading →

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