Tag Archives: Congress

Interview with HP Parvizian

Posted on January 26, 2018 by Charles Kuffner

I start scheduling interviews well in advance of when I start publishing them, for a variety of reasons. These things take time, people have schedules that need to be accommodated, myself included, and stuff happens that you can’t foresee. Sometimes … Continue reading →

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Interview with Dayna Steele

Posted on January 25, 2018 by Charles Kuffner

Though I often find the task I set for myself of interviewing candidates every year daunting, I do enjoy it. I’ve met a lot of good and interesting people this way, and I always find it energizing to hear their … Continue reading →

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Tahir Javed

Posted on January 22, 2018 by Charles Kuffner

So who is this guy in CD29? He’s an outsider in the 29th congressional district. He’s not Latino. He’s never lived in the congressional district he is running in until now. And he’s never run for office in his life. … Continue reading →

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More on the national wave of female candidates

Posted on January 21, 2018 by Charles Kuffner

As the second Women’s March was taking place yesterday, there were stories in two national publications about the plethora of women running for office this year. Here’s TIME Magazine: Erin Zwiener returned to Texas to settle down. At 32, she … Continue reading →

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HuffPo on Gina Ortiz Jones

Posted on January 19, 2018 by Charles Kuffner

I do love national stories about our Congressional candidates. Gina Ortiz Jones thought she could work for President Donald Trump. When he won the presidency in November 2016, Jones, a career civil servant who served in the Air Force in … Continue reading →

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Interview with Silky Malik

Posted on January 18, 2018 by Charles Kuffner

And so we come to the end of our journey through CD02. There are as noted five candidates in the Democratic primary, but candidate HP Parvizian did not reply to my email asking to schedule an interview. If that happens … Continue reading →

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Don’t hold your breath waiting for Harvey aid

Posted on January 18, 2018 by Charles Kuffner

Your Republican Congress, ladies and gentlemen. Republican lawmakers were hammering out a stop-gap deal Wednesday to avert a weekend government shutdown of the federal government this weekend, setting aside a long-sought disaster aid package for the victims of Hurricane Harvey … Continue reading →

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Interview with Todd Litton

Posted on January 17, 2018 by Charles Kuffner

CD02 hasn’t drawn quite as much attention as CD07 has – it has fewer Democratic candidates, and the district is more Republican-leaning – but one thing it had in common with CD07 was a Democratic challenger that had outraised the … Continue reading →

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Interview with Ali Khorasani

Posted on January 16, 2018 by Charles Kuffner

It’s day two of CD02, the soon-to-be-former district of Rep. Ted Poe. Today’s candidate, Ali Khorasani represents a couple of themes we have seen in this year’s crop of contenders: He’s under 40, and he’s a scientist. A graduate of … Continue reading →

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Finance reports start coming in

Posted on January 16, 2018 by Charles Kuffner

And once again, CD07 is the big story. The winner in the money chase so far is nonprofit executive Alex Triantaphyllis, who raised over $255,000 in the fourth quarter of 2017, bringing his total raised for the election to over … Continue reading →

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Interview with J. Darnell Jones

Posted on January 15, 2018 by Charles Kuffner

Today we move into CD02, which has been since 2004 the home of Rep. Ted Poe. Like Harris County overall it moved in a Democratic direction in 2016, though it was still Republican overall. It’s on the radar this year … Continue reading →

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Two upcoming candidate forums

Posted on January 15, 2018 by Charles Kuffner

Mark your calendars, Part I, for the CD2 Democratic Primary Candidate Forum. CD2 Democratic Primary Candidate Forum Hosted by Humble Area Democrats, Kingwood Area Democrats, Spring Democratic Club, and Democracy for Houston Tuesday, January 23 at 6 PM – 9 … Continue reading →

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Interview with Lizzie Pannill Fletcher

Posted on January 14, 2018 by Charles Kuffner

And so we come to the end of our week-long odyssey through the Democratic field in CD07. Next week, we shift focus to CD02, which will not require publishing interviews on weekend days. Lucky number seven in the Democratic lineup … Continue reading →

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Interview with Ivan Sanchez

Posted on January 13, 2018 by Charles Kuffner

The field in CD07 was stable for quite some time, with six of the seven filers posting finance reports from both Q2 and Q3 last year. Then in the waning days of the filing period, a new challenger emerged. That … Continue reading →

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SCOTUS will take up Texas redistricting appeal

Posted on January 13, 2018 by Charles Kuffner

As the man once said, hold onto your butts. Further extending a drawn-out legal battle, the U.S. Supreme Court on Friday agreed to hear a case over whether Texas’ congressional and House district boundaries discriminate against voters of color. The … Continue reading →

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Interview with Joshua Butler

Posted on January 12, 2018 by Charles Kuffner

We’re more than halfway through the Democratic field in CD07, and we’ll be keeping it going through the weekend. I’m not sure what I’d have done if there were more than the seven candidates there are. Good thing I don’t … Continue reading →

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Interview with James Cargas

Posted on January 11, 2018 by Charles Kuffner

One of the themes of this year’s election is the large number of people who are new to electoral politics getting involved. That has led to a huge number of first-time candidates throwing their hats into every ring imaginable. That’s … Continue reading →

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How many more women are we likely to have in Congress next year?

Posted on January 11, 2018 by Charles Kuffner

Probably at least two, and more are possible. No freshman woman has come to Congress from Texas since Granger’s election 1996, with the exception of former U.S. Rep. Shelley Sekula Gibbs, who served as a placeholder for less than two … Continue reading →

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Yet another ruling against North Carolina’s Congressional map

Posted on January 11, 2018 by Charles Kuffner

Because redistricting litigation is always of interest. A panel of federal judges struck down North Carolina’s congressional map on Tuesday, condemning it as unconstitutional because Republicans had drawn the map seeking a political advantage. The ruling was the first time … Continue reading →

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Interview with Alex Triantaphyllis

Posted on January 10, 2018 by Charles Kuffner

There are a lot of reasons why CD07 has drawn so much national attention. It’s a district Hillary Clinton won in 2016 despite being held by Republicans forever – this was Poppy Bush’s seat back in the day, for goodness’ … Continue reading →

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Interview with Laura Moser

Posted on January 9, 2018 by Charles Kuffner

Today is Day Two of my weeklong tour of CD07, which is not only one of the better pickup opportunities in Texas but also a regular feature in national stories about the 2018 environment and the map that Democrats are … Continue reading →

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Interview with Jason Westin

Posted on January 8, 2018 by Charles Kuffner

Today we kick off interview season for the 2018 Democratic primaries. There are a lot of races and a lot of candidates, and I will bring you as many as I can. This week is all about CD07, with seven … Continue reading →

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Lots of female candidates running this year

Posted on January 8, 2018 by Charles Kuffner

It’s that kind of year. Inside a classroom at a community college in downtown Dallas, a group of two dozen women took turns sharing their names, hometowns and what they hoped would be their future titles: Congresswoman. Dallas County judge. … Continue reading →

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Interview season begins tomorrow

Posted on January 7, 2018 by Charles Kuffner

We’re a month into primary season, and we’re also six weeks out from the start of early voting. You know what I did over Christmas vacation? I interviewed a bunch of candidates, that’s what. You will begin to see the … Continue reading →

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Julian Castro’s new PAC

Posted on January 7, 2018 by Charles Kuffner

Good to see. Former U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Julián Castro will launch a political action committee on Tuesday that aims to support Democratic Party efforts to take control of the U.S. House and groom younger candidates. Castro’s … Continue reading →

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So what’s up with the Farenthold ballot situation?

Posted on January 6, 2018 by Charles Kuffner

The Trib provides an update. So how did the Texas Republican Party manage to remove Farenthold from the primary ballot? The short answer is that they violated the election code, according to state officials. But the Texas Secretary of State’s … Continue reading →

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Record number of LGBT candidates running this year

Posted on January 4, 2018 by Charles Kuffner

OutSmart does the math. A record 40 openly LGBTQ people will run for public office in Texas in 2018, according to an extensive review by OutSmart. That’s roughly twice as many as in any previous election cycle in the state’s … Continue reading →

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Thoughts going into primary season

Posted on January 1, 2018 by Charles Kuffner

So primary season is officially open, with candidates pretty much everywhere. I’ve been busy doing interviews and will cover as many Democratic races as I can, but won’t get to them all. I may double back in the runoffs, we’ll … Continue reading →

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Dallas Observer Q&A with CD32 candidate Lillian Salerno

Posted on January 1, 2018 by Charles Kuffner

Once more to the Dallas Observer’s Q&A machine. Earlier this month, you spoke at an anti-monopoly conference in Washington about your experiences in the health care industry. Why is it so hard for innovative products to get into the health … Continue reading →

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The Nation on Our Revolution in Texas

Posted on December 31, 2017 by Charles Kuffner

Here’s a feature story in The Nation from before the holidays about Our Revolution, one of the many grassroots groups that have become prominent post-Trump to organize and get better people elected. The focus of this story is on what … Continue reading →

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Another look at Congressional odds

Posted on December 29, 2017 by Charles Kuffner

I was browsing around Facebook and came across a link to this 2018 midterm forecast from The Crosstab, whose proprietor also works at Decision Desk. As such, it is basically a December update to the November Decision Desk forecast, which … Continue reading →

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Filing roundup: Other Congressional races, part 2

Posted on December 28, 2017 by Charles Kuffner

See part 1 here, and the spreadsheet with all the Democratic Congressional filings here. These are the races that are objectively most likely to produce a flip, so there are fewer of them. Let’s dive right in. CD06 So long, … Continue reading →

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Filing roundup: Other Congressional races, part 1

Posted on December 27, 2017 by Charles Kuffner

We already knew this, but just a reminder there’s at least one Democratic candidate in all 36 Congressional districts in Texas. In deep-red Texas, Republicans will have to fight for every congressional seat in next year’s midterm elections. For the … Continue reading →

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The state of play in the suburbs

Posted on December 27, 2017 by Charles Kuffner

This NYT article about Congressional districts being targeted by Democrats in 2018 is about pickup opportunities in the suburbs, and they lead with a familiar example. As she sat with a glass of sauvignon blanc waiting for a women-focused Democratic … Continue reading →

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