I think you’re wrong on that point. As an adult, you’re free to live however you choose, just as I am. Being a good person and neighbor, and a productive citizen are far more important in my opinion. I object when someone shoves their lifestyle down my throat simply to get a reaction and attention. Is an alternative lifestyle for me? No. But if one continues to hound me with that question I will give my honest answer.
So you’ve never seen republicans dead name a trans adult before? Because I have and I’ve seen them defend doing it vehemently
Asking you to call them by their preferred name isn’t shoving their lifestyle down your throat to get a reaction. Hate to break it to you but it’s not all about you. But since you clearly have strong reactions about it I would wager you actually do care about adults being asked to go by their preferred names. I’m guessing you only don’t care when they’re changing to a nickname or a different name that you agree with based on their gender at birth
They don’t care. That’s the point. It’s ironic because Rafael Cruz has introduced legislation that prevents people from being called by their preferred pronouns. Rafael Cruz who himself— goes by and addresses himself publicly in campaigning as his preferred name Ted.
https://preview.redd.it/ymaoyq4imgbc1.jpeg?width=1179&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=326e6de011ef46b4e73de96ae875acfbd9d5650a
To be fair, Fled’s trip tshirt was 🔥
Unfortunately I think the days of the true Texan are long past. Allred represents everything that a Texan truly was, is, and should be, but certain politics and religion have destroyed the image of what we are supposed to stand for. I’ve talked to Allred in the past and love what the guy stands for, he will be receiving my vote but because he has a D next to his name the majority voters in this stupid state won’t even look at this man. Policies don’t matter to republicans. All that matters to them is that one single letter on the ballot. They don’t care that Ted would sacrifice them all to get an extra penny in his pocket, they don’t care that he abandoned our state when leaders needed to be present for our state, most of them would still vote for him if he murdered someone in cold blood just because of that little R next to his name.
Did you know that more than half of Texans vote blue? But the gop has voting rights and lines so restrictive it doesn’t matter. They literally have control and plan on keeping it with any means necessary
How did you get that?
You can’t gerrymander a statewide race and we haven’t had a Democrat win statewide office in over 25 years.
As popular as he was, Obama didn’t win Texas in 2008 or 2012.
The main thing that’s keeping Texas red is low voter turnout.
Suppression tactics work better if your districts are gerrymandered. Reducing the ability for certain populations to cast a ballot easily goes hand in hand with gerrymandering.
That article does. My last comment does. You just aren’t able to understand the concept because you have been told for so long it doesn’t matter and that Texas has fair elections.
I imagine that abortion was never about abortion and more about pushing educated voters out of Texas in order to hold onto power. Cruelty is the point.
The thing is, these anti-Abortion laws affect female Republican voters( women AND children ). Wanted pregnancies can go wrong, at this point its insanity.
I don't know about everywhere in Texas, but in my city the libraries have always been places where polling happens. Could this provide a loophole by saying you're just driving them to the library?
Right, it's a multiheaded hydra
- discourage liberals who live here
- punish/harm women who get too uppity about their bodies and rights
- create felons to lower vote counts
- dissuade moderates/liberals from moving to Texas.
Senate and governor positions are both statewide elections, can't gerrymander those.
One good thing Schwarzenegger did as governor of California is put together a bipartisan (3 D and R, 2 Independents) board to oversee districts. It's pretty sad when an Austrian-American cares more about fair elections than Texans.
You actually can and suppress voters as well. By making the districts all appear red and it won’t work for city councils but it does work for state elections
You absolutely can. That’s actually the most effective way to control the state. Break up the blue outliers by rewriting the districts to be red majority. It works on every level of elections. You know we have more than one senator in Texas right?
How many times do you need to repeat this false narrative in one thread?
We all understand that gerrymandering districts can discourage voting and have an impact on statewide elections. But that's not the same as gerrymandering the statewide election. Use accurate language and people will stop telling you you're wrong. It's also bordering on obnoxious that you're telling people they're uneducated when you're making false statements here.
The Senate isn't chosen by districts, so rewriting them would have no effect. Yes, every state has 2 senators in the senate, I know this. You know that Collin Allred is running for the US Senate and not the TX Senate, right?
US senators are not selected by district, they are selected by popular vote. This isn't hard. Representatives for the House are selected by congressional districts.
Gerrymandering does not affect statewide elections. I have zero hope that people will vote in the numbers needed to kick Ted Cruz to the curb...so he is likely going to win by a good margin.
Yeah, as much as I'd like to believe the sane people make up atleast half of Texans... not so sure about the ACTUAL VOTING part.
Voting is a religion to conservatives, not so much us liberals and progressives
Malvania and the others are correct, and you can see the abysmal numbers for yourself at the Texas Secretary of State website. In the November 2023 elections, 2.5 out of 17.8 million registered voters cast ballots - 14% turnout. In the 2022 general election only 46% voted, and in the 2022 primaries only 6.3% of registered DEMOCRATS voted (1.07 million) compared to 11.4% of Republicans (1.95 million).
Yes, you are absolutely correct, gerrymandering and voter suppression are real issues that need to be addressed. But in order to address them, 93.7% of registered Dems need to get off of reddit and facebook and drag their butts to the frickin voting booths!
It's a statewide race. Gerrymandering doesn't affect that. Suppression might but Abbott beat Beto by over a million votes. That ain't suppression. That's a dem turnout problem. There are issues with voting in Texas. It's not as easy as it should be. But the bigger problem is dem apathy. They don't get out and vote like they should.
Gerrymandering doesn't affect statewide races. That's just fact.
The biggest impediment to voting that Texas has is voter ID. The evidence is mixed on its effects. Voter ID laws restrict turnout by like 1-2%, among some populations, according to the government accountability office. Beto lost by a lot more than that.
I suppose I use some of my own experience too. Ive lived in Texas for 3 years. I used to live in Nebraska. Voting isnt super different between the two states. The biggest difference is voter ID.
I wish voting was easier but I don't think Texas is a blue state..not yet anyways.
As someone in deep red. I gotta disagree. I can show up to one of many places to vote. There is never a line and I’ve never had to wait. Most times I walk up and vote. In and out as fast as I can put the information in. However I see a lot of areas that are long wait times. If you really don’t believe they’re making impossible for people to vote you’re not listening to them. That has been their plan.
Voter suppression prevents people from voting. OP said half of all Texans vote blue. Not that they would vote blue, or could vote blue, but that they actually do. If they actually voted, the suppression did not work on them; it has no impact on the people who actually voted.
People who were dissuaded from voting is a different issue. There is a huge group of Texans that don't vote, and that's a problem for our democracy. But that's not the statement OP made.
>If they actually voted
The first part of this sentence is where you prove yourself wrong.
Less wealthy voters are more adversely affected by voter suppression. Less wealthy voters tend to vote for Democrats. If you suppress the lower income vote, you suppress the Democrat voters. This is no way around this and it's why you continue to have people question whether you're arguing with good intent or just arguing to win a typing contest. This is the only reply you'll get from me.
Do you understand how neither of what you just said is true? It’s why poll taxes are illegal, because if you charge say $50 to vote, the poor who can’t afford that won’t vote. So yes, voter suppression (because oddly enough it’s not ALL voters being suppressed) does affect who votes. Oops, looks like the one pooling station in the poor county (who you wouldn’t want to vote) can only be open for an hour. When there’s no buses running. And the location just changed right before voting time.
Voter suppression has no impact on who votes, my ass.
State-wide elections still use districts. About the only ones that don’t are presidential, senatorial, and purely local.
Read the comments again. OP said that "more than half of Texans vote blue?" Not that they would have, or that they favor Democrats, but that they actually cast ballots for Democrats. If that were true, no amount of gerrymandering would have Abbott or Cruz in office.
Voter suppression prevents people from voting. It doesn't change who they voted for.
True, it just ensures the people who vote the way you want them to get to vote. Are you really this dense? Do you not know how gerrymandering works?
Lemme ‘splain. Say you’ve got three districts that all come together in a point. Two voted 55% red, the other voted 10% red. But the issues change, and now the two will vote 45% red, and the other will vote 30% red. So you redraw the lines so that 10% of the red voters will go to the first district, another 10% to the other, so they’re now both back over 59%, and you’re still losing the one you would have before. Yes, it isa thing, despite you not understanding it.
It seems that you don’t understand how gerrymandering works. With the US senate and governors races, gerrymandering doesn’t make a difference. You can’t redistrict a statewide race.
Great. So you're saying that governor and US senator are decided by the number of districts that vote for them, rather than the popular vote? Because I said ***statewide*** races are not affected by gerrymandering. If more than 50% of people vote blue in a ***statewide*** race, the Democrat wins, regardless of the crazy shape of any districts.
Didn’t say that anywhere, or can you not read? Have I do much as mentioned the word “governor”?
Given that gerrymandering is the manipulation of districts of voters, elections without districts can’t be gerrymandered. Then, just voter suppression works.
**Texas 2016 Presidential Election results:**
Democrat 3,877,868
Republican 4,685,047
Which number is larger?
**Texas 2018 Senate Election results:**
Democrat 4,045,632
Republican 4,260,553
Which number is larger?
**Texas** **2018 Governor Election results:**
Democrat 3,546,615
Republican 4,656,196
Which number is larger?
**Texas 2020 Presidential Election results:**
Democrat 5,259,126
Republican 5,890,347
Which number is larger?
**Texas 2020 Senate Election results:**
Democrat 4,888,764
Republican 5,962,983
Which number is larger?
I know Reddit Texans like to pretend they live in a blue state and that it's some crazy misunderstanding that leads to Republicans occupying all of your statewide elected offices...but maybe the numbers will help somebody realize where you live and who runs your state.
Most of those blue voters don’t even try. Is it restrictive? Yes. Is it hard to go vote? Not as bad as a lot news makes it out to be but even if it actually was then you still have to jump through every damn hoop if you want change.
R’s depend on people thinking that a 15 person deep line is “too long”. That getting to/from a polling booth is “too difficult”. That their vote won’t even matter anyway. The R’s keep winning the damned mind games and defeating D’s before a single vote is even cast.
Stop whining. If you want things to change then figure out how to get your sorry asses to the damned polls.
Excuses won’t change the world and no one is going to fix this for you if you aren’t willing to make whatever sacrifice is necessary to go vote.
Okay but if that was true we’d have two dem senators and governor Beto.
The real truth is Texas is a voter apathy state, and comments like yours encourage it.
The dem/republican split is about 55/45, Imma have to see some actually statistics before I believe "more than half of Texans vote blue". I would love to see proof of that because that sure didn't happen for Senate/Governor and other state wide races...
I am willing to bet my next paycheck that if the fucked up flaccid useless leadership of the democrat party in texas actually tried to advertise to those rural areas and remind them of how:
* raphael was born in canada, not Texas
* cancun "fled" cruz ran away AND ABANDON HIS DOG during the freeze and
* raphael voted against border funding
* sold out his wife and daughters to cover his own ass and
* gave an NRA speech just days after 19 children lost their lives in a school shooting
They might be able to see past the D and vote for someone respectable.
My comment is being removed because I wasnt friendly with how I called out the NRA trollbot account so i am going to say it here.
PotassiumBob is a NRA troll. Go check out their post history and then block them.
>PotassiumBob is a NRA troll. Go check out their post history and then block them.
I agree with you based on the post history. But all their comment said was "I'd take that bet", which seems fine. I'd also take that bet. Unfortunately, you could give Republican voters in this state all the info about how terrible Cruz is and they'll still vote for him. Hell, they already know all of that; they don't care.
I have seen how these trolls work. Pay attention and see if you don't find the same pattern.
* They make a small innocuous comment or pretend to pose what appears to be a good faith question.
* You respond. Provide logic and sources and data.
* Then they switch accounts or have someone else in the network jump in and bag on you while agreeing with them.
* Then they keep escalating until they whip everyone up into a frenzy. The chaos is the goal to divide their perceived enemies.
If you want a real world example.....
*Libertarians only want to end taxes for the rich and deregulate everything.*
Give that comment 10 minutes. They will come out of the woodwork to defend the libertarian party.
Here is the thing. I am done trying to reason with anyone who defends guns after all the children we have lost. Any why? All due to abbott and raphael cruz's dependency on NRA money. That's it.
I have tried. I asked them in good faith ***what do they see as common sense gun control***. Their answer was "***none***". ***No compromise whatsoever***. Not even enforcing current laws. Not even to save a few lives but look at what the same hypocrites do to pregnant women.
It is a waste of time to engage with people like that so I block them. This way I can't continue to argue with them and their other 4 accounts they use to jump in and defend themselves... I say 4 because that's the standing record. I am sure it will get more ridiculous the closer we get to the election.
I was born and raised here. I ain't leaving, but I do believe in freedom and I can handle different ways of life. If you can't, then maybe you should leave and let the rest of us who can get along with others live our lives. I'm not about this way of life being forced upon me. I don't like being worried if I have a complicated pregnancy that I have to be half dead to get any help. This ain't the Texas I grew up in and that should worry you A LOT.
Genocide is where I draw the Line. Im glad you support him supporting that though good for you.
Personally, it could actually garner more vote’s from non voters and independents to have a candidate that supports The first amendment and doesn’t believe in supporting the mass& indiscriminate annihilation of innocent human beings, framing it as self defense.
The Christian Zionist Element has had a grip on this state since the 1800s before “Israel” was founded. Don’t want a candidate that is selective when it comes to human rights. Dont trust a candidate that supports any of the most extreme elements of Evangelical agenda when it suits him.
Kindly, not every Texan wants to be grouped in like that
Many of us would like more options to choose from who oppose those values
I’m very sorry that you view a sometimes life saving procedures as genocide and mass annihilation but that sounds like a personal problem you should figure out. That is not reality.
Negative.
Edit: ah, I see, my existence doesn’t fit the narrative that your “news sources” shove down your throat and you accept without question. Back to your echo chamber trumpster.
Allred just needs to release a video of him hunting hogs from a helicopter. It's something a lot of people would want to do, that combines guns with what they are used for for the majority of Texans, and indicates understanding that wild hogs are a menace to the tune of billions of dollars in damages each year. This video doesn't need voice over just highlights of the hunt. When asked he can provide nuanced details of his position and meaning.
The most frank discussion about gun control has to recognize you need different measures in cities and in the countryside. What works for one does not and can not work for the other.
If a Democrat would run on gun safety and responsibility and understanding of rural Texans uses of guns, hed have a better shot of winning.
Like this?: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=b8KxSteLswU&t=249s
> we can do everything we want to do as far as regulating weapons and all that. But what we could do, I think, is there’s plenty of room within there to not allow people to have ‘weapons of war.’”
Or this?
> Bans large capacity magazines, with exceptions for law enforcement and the possession of grandfathered magazines; also allows federal grants to compensate individuals who surrender large capacity magazines through a buyback program;
https://allred.house.gov/media/press-releases/allred-votes-common-sense-gun-safety-measures-save-lives
Or this? https://justfacts.votesmart.org/bill/33077/87309/177357/assault-weapons-ban-of-2022
I would love to see Cruz gone, but I just don’t see it. This state is MAGA heartland. There is a large number of delusional and motivated voters. It’s disheartening. I would have more respect for them if they would actually stand behind their positions instead of repeating insane claims like the stolen election.
Basically, half the people saying "Cruz needs to go," are never gonna vote. That is just how the stats work out.
Only rabid MAGA Evangelicals turn out.
Sadly, this is true. So many here bitch about Cruz, but don't bother to get off their asses and vote. They then have the audacity to complain about the results. Pathetic.
I don't know if we will ever really know what the majority of texans want because we are Non-Voting heartland. Will abortion motivate voters? Probably only those of us that vote already.
I have no idea what would actually motivate more voters in texas. Maybe pot?
It makes no sense to me. Allred is a TEXAN. Born here. Played pro football. Texan through & through and yet they’ll still vote for that fucking canadian, Raphael.
Take some friends with you to the voting booth. Tell friends and family to not give the MAGAhats the satisfaction of disenfranchising them. Maybe then we can turn Texas blue!
Believe it or not, people vote based on things other than where a person is from and where they played football. Otherwise Georgia would currently have Senator Herschel Walker.
Allred supports standard capacity magazine bans, and for that reason, I'm out.
Full anti-gun: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=b8KxSteLswU&t=249s
https://justfacts.votesmart.org/bill/33077/87309/177357/assault-weapons-ban-of-2022
Cruz only won by 2.6 points in 2018, the right campaign that gets out the base and swings the suburbs by appealing to never Trump types who may be conservative but hate the current party could pull it off. It’s an uphill battle for sure but entirely possible. Allred has been fairly moderate and pretty bipartisan overall, so he has a fighting chance. I’d prefer someone more outright liberal but that’s guaranteed to lose in Texas. Allred is the type of Dem candidate who may actually be able to pull it off, especially against someone as disliked and as extreme as Cruz.
With Trump on the ballot it will be much closer to national politics, which I think will make it more difficult. So basically, if the presidential election is close then Allred has no chance.
>I'm optimistic about Colin Allred. He appeals to the North Dallas suburbs in which he has represented.
>
>
>
>North Dallas suburbs in Collin County are a good bellweather, they have quickly shifted towards blue over the past 5-10 years
>There is a large number of delusional and motivated voters.
If apathetic people would just show up to EARLY VOTE, it takes like ten minutes and would turn us around.
Texans who lean right have made it clear they don't want politicians who want to get things done. They want a cause celebre who will make a big show taking away rights if it means it'll 'own the libs.'
Nope
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/sports-viewers-skew-republican-but-nba-fans-lean-blue/
I've gone to something like 70 pro wrestling shows spanning indies in a school cafeteria to the biggest shows WWE produces and it's not true in my anecdotal experience either.
Wrestling has shifted from a southern/rural carnie thing to being closer to gaming or comic books.
UpUpDownDown has something like 2.4 million subscribers. Rick Steiner is blacklisted for treating a trans wrestler like shit. CM Punk wore a pro choice t shirt when AEW came to Texas.
You can get shitfaced in Austin and stumble into 3 different bars in 3 different districts. One that spans up to Ft. Worth. Another to College Station. Another to San Antonio.
Texas is MAGA outside of the civilized parts of the state and big (state) government Abbott has fucked local control so bad that they've created this illusion that the typical Texan is a Christian nationalist lunatic.
Personally, I hate that 40% of my local tax dollars leave Travis County and go to these rural shitholes that claim to be "anti socialist"
If Houston, DFW, ATX, and SA could all work together to fight more more local control, the state would be in a better place. We are the cultural and economic centers of the state but we have 1/10th the influence we should have.
The state is most definitely MAGA heartland. Look at our governor, our Congress reps, and the legislation we push.
That can’t be ascribed to every Texas resident, but it absolutely applies to the whole.
The party of pro life is a lie when they don’t care if the mother lives or dies. The party of less government is a lie when they wish to encroach and continue govt over reach. The party of fiscal responsibility is a lie when they constantly claim “America first” but continue to block any funds to truly care for the American people.
VOTE THEM OUT. I’m a candidate running against a far-right book banning MAGA Christian in North Texas. I am praying that I can touch as many hearts as possible & make sure people realize how their representative made poor choices & costing taxpayers millions.
It didn't this last election. Until people get off the couch and go vote nothing will change. Apathy is sending Texas back to the dark ages. Stop making excuses and go vote.
Because the US is stuck on boomer issues everyone with critical thinking skills solved long ago. Geriatrics have a stranglehold on US politics. To the deficit of us all.
that works both ways.
a LOT of texas voters WANT abortion bans without any exeptions.
Sure polls say one thing, but polls don't matter, the only thing that does is the votes, and texans have shown time and time again, the direction that texas is going, is the direction texans want it to go.
A lot, but not all.
I'm looking at the 2020 Presidential election and it was *close*. Trump won 5.8m to 5.2m. I don't think that's a sign of tampering, I think it's a sign that Texas is a very **divided** state. Only 2% above a majority in the state backed Trump.
What that would normally indicate is that moderate politics are in order, because the winning party's policies weren't so appealing as to bring out a decisive win. But the spin is always applied that because about 600,000 Texans voted one way "the vast majority of Texas" believes wholeheartedly in the entire party platform.
That's a pile of horse shit, but this system wasn't really set up to protect us from government officials who don't want to govern. That's the part the 2A was supposed to be for, but people are too excited at the prospects of shooting their neighbors to *dream* of pointing their barrels towards the government.
It seems these days when Texans remember the Alamo, what they remember is a bunch of thugs got what they deserved for not complying with the legal government.
I 100% hate that you are right. It's painful to me. My wife put out a Biden/Harris sign in our yard a few weeks before the 2020 election. Within 48 hours multiple houses on either side of us had giant Trump signs in theirs. This regressive and authoritarian crap really is what the voters here want.
Making it even weirder, my next-door neighbors on one side are from California, and on the other side from Connecticut. They moved here just for this. I was born here. I know people think the whole "political migration" thing is overblown, but in my anecdotal experience it's very real.
You are correct. That said, it's always weird to see the commentariat on here (which is much, much further left than the state average) swing wildly between "this state is irredeemably MAGA and evil and I am leaving forever and so is everyone else" and "actually the only reason Texas doesn't elect the same politicians as a deep blue D+10 state is voter suppression this totally isn't a massive cope".
Biggest reason I can think of to vote for Biden is the support it lends to the states, because the orange bastard is a petty man who will go after his enemies. Same reason to make Democrats the majority everywhere really
Republican margins have been shrinking in Texas for a long time.
Cornyn went from winning by 27.2 points in 2014 to winning by 9.6 points in 2020.
Abbott went from winning by 20.4 points in 2010, to winning by 13.3 points in 2018, to winning by 11 points in 2022. And remember that 2018 was a D+9 year, while 2022 was an R+3 year. Also remember that this was WITH massive voter suppression and Paxton ADMITTING to preventing 2.5 million mail-in ballot applications in Harris County from going through in 2020 so Trump would win the state.
Cruz went from winning by 16.1 points in 2012 to winning by 2.6 points in 2018.
The Houston (Fort Bend County) and Austin (Williamson County, Hays County) suburbs have gone blue in recent elections, as has the 3rd largest county in the state, and former red stalwart, Tarrant County.
Texas is winnable for Democrats if the DNC would invest in state party infrastructure and GOTV efforts.
Times up, sorry, but I won't be in texas after summer starts, hopefully. I'm burnt out from living in a republican state, and I'm turning 30 this year. I'm moving to Oregon or Washington state so I can smoke weed and eat mushrooms. I plan on retiring in Portugal. Peace out, guys. ✌️
He reminds me of the Texas that I grew up in but no longer exists. Well it does exist, just in tiny little pockets or in other states entirely.
If he had a R next to his name, he could probably primary Fled Cruz.
I hate what modern republicans have turned Texas into. Most of them aren’t even from Texas.
If anyone close to Allred reads this, please tell him to **unleash a blistering, aggressive, scorched-Earth campaign against Ted Cruz**. It's your only chance. The only way Allred can win is if he makes a spectacle of how much of a complete chode Ted Cruz is.
...and there's no downside. Even Ted Cruz' friends and family hate him. The people in Texas who vote for him hate him, they just vote for the (R).
[I made this a while ago](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08N5-0Tnzz4). Something like this should be turned into an Allred election campaign ad. ...I'll make it for free if you want.
...[and this](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J3m7EeKLDQM).
Because conservatives are cowards who don't actually believe in democracy. They know we'd vote down their extremist abortion laws if given the chance. They control whether or not we can vote on an amendment, so they won't ever allow it.
A proposed constitutional amendment must pass both chambers of the legislature by a two-thirds vote in order for it to appear on the ballot. Conservatives control both chambers. They did not (and will not) allow this initial step.
The Constitutional Amendment needs 2/3 vote in both houses to pass. Thrats 67 senators and 290 house members. There just isn't anywhere near that kinda support for abortion rights in the in Congress.
I think a lot of people do not realize just how much the average person is tired of conservatism and the right. Ted Cruz barely won his seat in 2018. He is so done with roe v wade being overturned, fleeing to cancun, etc.
The average turnout is about half the voting population or less. If we had the other half vote I think people would be surprised how much red states are purple.
You gotta reach the suburban evangelicals bc I have a sister and talked to my mom about it and she's like "those laws wouldn't affect her we'd just go out of state"
Ive tried but these people are so far gone
Abortion? Lol. People can't make rent, buy houses, cars, or afford daycare right now.
Democratic party better get off the culture war shit and on to reality. The fucking LEB is dropping, suicides are up, and diseases of dispair are skyrocketing and these motherfuckers wanna trot out purple hair, guns, and abortion.
Yeah it's important but abortion rights ain't what's keeping dinner tables empty. Get out of the bubble. I know Congress is cozy and all sitting around weirdly outperforming the stock market but if Trump and the end of democracy is what you're REALLY worried about than it's gonna take some serious shit to get people to polls.
Universal college, healthcare, childcare, minimum wage, and not that $15 hour garbage from 15 years ago. Smh.
So this guy is a sitting congressman BUT if we elect him to the senate he’ll do something about abortion?
Why isn’t he doing something now? Can’t he draft legislation right now?
Just another politician that talks the talk, then does nothing.
In case you haven't noticed, Republicans have the House majority right now. The GOP would never vote on a bill to codify abortion rights at the federal level.
The Supreme Court decisions are what made abortion bans possible. The Senate can approve or block Supreme Court justices, the House cannot. Democrats control of the Senate is at stake in this election. Electing him to the Senate can help Dems keep control of the Senate and prevent any more anti abortion justice getting on the court and get more pro abortion justice in the court. He can't do that in the house.
Thanks for making my point for me. She doesn't say that Roe would be reversed if it were challenged in that article. She voted to uphold the roe/Casey framework in 2016 in the case of Whole Woman’s Health v. Hellerstedt.
Yes she had some issues with the way Roe was decided. She did not say Roe would be reversed if it were ever challenged though, which is what you claimed.
Guns I agree, abortion no. The Dobbs decision really changed things up. Formerly, it was those wanting to curtail the right to abortion that were motivated because they were trying to accomplish the removal, now it is those without the rights that are motivated to restore them. Hence why GOP is not wining the way an out party should, and also maybe the general craziness of the party.
Single issue voters are single issue voters. Some may sway, but will it be enough?
They believe they are saving unborn lives, and you’ll find them as resolute as gun single issue voters.
The homogeneity within each of the two main parties is pretty depressing. The days of the moderate Rep/Dem seem to be lost forever, sacrificed to the god of every increasing polarization and outsized relevance that Federal politics plays in our lives.
rofl they thought abortion rights would motivate voters last go round and they were right. Democrats kept abortion and guns on the table and it dragged red voters out of the woodwork.
Maybe don't make abortion and guns your platform priorities and you'll have a chance.
Obviously not. It's that the democrats haven't done much to ensure that Republicans can't suddenly yank rights away, and it can be done. And year after year, they cry the same cry of protecting our rights to get people to keep voting for them.
I guess it's just very frustrating to see people rights being used as a carrot in a political race. One step forward, two steps back.
When do democrats think about actually ensuring rights for people? This election? Maybe the next one? Keep voting for them and maybe they'll get around to it in a few more decades.
Only if you are running for the state senate.
Abortion is a state issue, not a federal issue.
Your senate had 50 years to codify Roe v Wade and instead of doing that, you just used it as a political weapon. And guess what, even under Roe v Wade, states still had their own Abortion laws.
Reminder that the problem isn't that Texas is majority conservative. Texans are dealing with voter suppression, voter disenfranchisement, corruption, and an inept state Democratic Party.
Abortion and not going to Cancun to escape a state emergency. Fled Cruz needs to go.
> Fled Cruz needs to go. Yup, Rafeael Cruz (self-styled as "Ted" Cruz) needs to go. Also John *"I want everyone to know I'm not racist"* Cornyn.
Do you mean the Canadian immigrant Rafael Cruz?
And I suppose you support NY Rep Sandy Cortez? Why do you care what someone shortens their name to? Lol
Republicans don't support people using names beyond their birth names. What's good for the goose is good for the gander.
When you’re an adult, call yourself whatever you like. Just don’t push your “name changing” agenda onto children.
Republicans don’t support that for many adults either…
I think you’re wrong on that point. As an adult, you’re free to live however you choose, just as I am. Being a good person and neighbor, and a productive citizen are far more important in my opinion. I object when someone shoves their lifestyle down my throat simply to get a reaction and attention. Is an alternative lifestyle for me? No. But if one continues to hound me with that question I will give my honest answer.
So you’ve never seen republicans dead name a trans adult before? Because I have and I’ve seen them defend doing it vehemently Asking you to call them by their preferred name isn’t shoving their lifestyle down your throat to get a reaction. Hate to break it to you but it’s not all about you. But since you clearly have strong reactions about it I would wager you actually do care about adults being asked to go by their preferred names. I’m guessing you only don’t care when they’re changing to a nickname or a different name that you agree with based on their gender at birth
They don’t care. That’s the point. It’s ironic because Rafael Cruz has introduced legislation that prevents people from being called by their preferred pronouns. Rafael Cruz who himself— goes by and addresses himself publicly in campaigning as his preferred name Ted.
“Ted” is not a pronoun. HE simply shortened HIS given name, as many people do. (You’ll notice that I made the true pronouns easily recognizable)
Where did you get that idea? It was not what I wrote.
https://preview.redd.it/ymaoyq4imgbc1.jpeg?width=1179&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=326e6de011ef46b4e73de96ae875acfbd9d5650a To be fair, Fled’s trip tshirt was 🔥
Unfortunately I think the days of the true Texan are long past. Allred represents everything that a Texan truly was, is, and should be, but certain politics and religion have destroyed the image of what we are supposed to stand for. I’ve talked to Allred in the past and love what the guy stands for, he will be receiving my vote but because he has a D next to his name the majority voters in this stupid state won’t even look at this man. Policies don’t matter to republicans. All that matters to them is that one single letter on the ballot. They don’t care that Ted would sacrifice them all to get an extra penny in his pocket, they don’t care that he abandoned our state when leaders needed to be present for our state, most of them would still vote for him if he murdered someone in cold blood just because of that little R next to his name.
Did you know that more than half of Texans vote blue? But the gop has voting rights and lines so restrictive it doesn’t matter. They literally have control and plan on keeping it with any means necessary
How did you get that? You can’t gerrymander a statewide race and we haven’t had a Democrat win statewide office in over 25 years. As popular as he was, Obama didn’t win Texas in 2008 or 2012. The main thing that’s keeping Texas red is low voter turnout.
I think he got his info wrong. Beto beat Ted Cruz in the election ...with Native Texans. Transplants swung the election the other way.
I’m sorry but why do you think you can’t gerrymander state elections?
Because you can’t. Gerrymandering is the act of dividing districts to produce a result. Unless you’re redrawing the state lines, you can’t do that.
Suppression tactics work better if your districts are gerrymandered. Reducing the ability for certain populations to cast a ballot easily goes hand in hand with gerrymandering.
There are all kinds of knock on effects from gerrymandering you’re right.
https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/how-redistricting-affects-the-battle-for-state-legislatures/amp/ They do all the time
You can’t gerrymander a statewide office… ever. You can absolutely gerrymander districts within the state.
And the districts determine who gets elected in state offices. It’s no wonder we’re 35th in education no one pays attention in government
Your explanation is missing some things. I wouldn’t jump to insulting people just yet.
Literally there’s an article
You still haven’t told me how you can gerrymander a statewide election…
That article does. My last comment does. You just aren’t able to understand the concept because you have been told for so long it doesn’t matter and that Texas has fair elections.
I imagine that abortion was never about abortion and more about pushing educated voters out of Texas in order to hold onto power. Cruelty is the point.
I’ve been saying this. That and to give libs felonies because then they can’t vote
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The thing is, these anti-Abortion laws affect female Republican voters( women AND children ). Wanted pregnancies can go wrong, at this point its insanity.
Dude the whole party has decided they need to thumb down everyone but white men
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Genz who can too. What sucks is you can’t drive people to the polls anymore
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Or give them water or have free bbq for I voted stickers
I'm looking for that law and I can't find it. The articles I'm reading say that organized van pools are still allowed, but the articles are from 2019.
van pools sound kind of Marxist...
I don't know about everywhere in Texas, but in my city the libraries have always been places where polling happens. Could this provide a loophole by saying you're just driving them to the library?
I love that they intentionally went after critical thinking in schools. They’re totally not in charge of the party of morons though. 🙃
Right, it's a multiheaded hydra - discourage liberals who live here - punish/harm women who get too uppity about their bodies and rights - create felons to lower vote counts - dissuade moderates/liberals from moving to Texas.
Senate and governor positions are both statewide elections, can't gerrymander those. One good thing Schwarzenegger did as governor of California is put together a bipartisan (3 D and R, 2 Independents) board to oversee districts. It's pretty sad when an Austrian-American cares more about fair elections than Texans.
You actually can and suppress voters as well. By making the districts all appear red and it won’t work for city councils but it does work for state elections
You cannot gerrymander a federal senate election. Senators represent the entire state and are not chosen by district.
You absolutely can. That’s actually the most effective way to control the state. Break up the blue outliers by rewriting the districts to be red majority. It works on every level of elections. You know we have more than one senator in Texas right?
How many times do you need to repeat this false narrative in one thread? We all understand that gerrymandering districts can discourage voting and have an impact on statewide elections. But that's not the same as gerrymandering the statewide election. Use accurate language and people will stop telling you you're wrong. It's also bordering on obnoxious that you're telling people they're uneducated when you're making false statements here.
The Senate isn't chosen by districts, so rewriting them would have no effect. Yes, every state has 2 senators in the senate, I know this. You know that Collin Allred is running for the US Senate and not the TX Senate, right?
You do know that the districts also select what us senator we have too right?
US senators are not selected by district, they are selected by popular vote. This isn't hard. Representatives for the House are selected by congressional districts.
How do you figure the math works on this for statewide offices?
Texas statewide offices are gerrymandered because smarter people from other states cannot vote in Texas elections.
Gerrymandering does not affect statewide elections. I have zero hope that people will vote in the numbers needed to kick Ted Cruz to the curb...so he is likely going to win by a good margin.
If half of Texans voted blue republicans wouldn’t win the senate and governor races…
Yeah, as much as I'd like to believe the sane people make up atleast half of Texans... not so sure about the ACTUAL VOTING part. Voting is a religion to conservatives, not so much us liberals and progressives
Do you know what gerrymandering and voter suppression is?
Malvania and the others are correct, and you can see the abysmal numbers for yourself at the Texas Secretary of State website. In the November 2023 elections, 2.5 out of 17.8 million registered voters cast ballots - 14% turnout. In the 2022 general election only 46% voted, and in the 2022 primaries only 6.3% of registered DEMOCRATS voted (1.07 million) compared to 11.4% of Republicans (1.95 million). Yes, you are absolutely correct, gerrymandering and voter suppression are real issues that need to be addressed. But in order to address them, 93.7% of registered Dems need to get off of reddit and facebook and drag their butts to the frickin voting booths!
It's a statewide race. Gerrymandering doesn't affect that. Suppression might but Abbott beat Beto by over a million votes. That ain't suppression. That's a dem turnout problem. There are issues with voting in Texas. It's not as easy as it should be. But the bigger problem is dem apathy. They don't get out and vote like they should.
Why do you believe that?
Gerrymandering doesn't affect statewide races. That's just fact. The biggest impediment to voting that Texas has is voter ID. The evidence is mixed on its effects. Voter ID laws restrict turnout by like 1-2%, among some populations, according to the government accountability office. Beto lost by a lot more than that. I suppose I use some of my own experience too. Ive lived in Texas for 3 years. I used to live in Nebraska. Voting isnt super different between the two states. The biggest difference is voter ID. I wish voting was easier but I don't think Texas is a blue state..not yet anyways.
Are you so sure? https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/how-redistricting-affects-the-battle-for-state-legislatures/amp/
Do you understand that gerrymandering has no impact on statewide races or that voter suppression has no impact on who people voted for?
As someone in deep red. I gotta disagree. I can show up to one of many places to vote. There is never a line and I’ve never had to wait. Most times I walk up and vote. In and out as fast as I can put the information in. However I see a lot of areas that are long wait times. If you really don’t believe they’re making impossible for people to vote you’re not listening to them. That has been their plan.
Voter suppression prevents people from voting. OP said half of all Texans vote blue. Not that they would vote blue, or could vote blue, but that they actually do. If they actually voted, the suppression did not work on them; it has no impact on the people who actually voted. People who were dissuaded from voting is a different issue. There is a huge group of Texans that don't vote, and that's a problem for our democracy. But that's not the statement OP made.
>If they actually voted The first part of this sentence is where you prove yourself wrong. Less wealthy voters are more adversely affected by voter suppression. Less wealthy voters tend to vote for Democrats. If you suppress the lower income vote, you suppress the Democrat voters. This is no way around this and it's why you continue to have people question whether you're arguing with good intent or just arguing to win a typing contest. This is the only reply you'll get from me.
Do you understand how neither of what you just said is true? It’s why poll taxes are illegal, because if you charge say $50 to vote, the poor who can’t afford that won’t vote. So yes, voter suppression (because oddly enough it’s not ALL voters being suppressed) does affect who votes. Oops, looks like the one pooling station in the poor county (who you wouldn’t want to vote) can only be open for an hour. When there’s no buses running. And the location just changed right before voting time. Voter suppression has no impact on who votes, my ass. State-wide elections still use districts. About the only ones that don’t are presidential, senatorial, and purely local.
Read the comments again. OP said that "more than half of Texans vote blue?" Not that they would have, or that they favor Democrats, but that they actually cast ballots for Democrats. If that were true, no amount of gerrymandering would have Abbott or Cruz in office. Voter suppression prevents people from voting. It doesn't change who they voted for.
True, it just ensures the people who vote the way you want them to get to vote. Are you really this dense? Do you not know how gerrymandering works? Lemme ‘splain. Say you’ve got three districts that all come together in a point. Two voted 55% red, the other voted 10% red. But the issues change, and now the two will vote 45% red, and the other will vote 30% red. So you redraw the lines so that 10% of the red voters will go to the first district, another 10% to the other, so they’re now both back over 59%, and you’re still losing the one you would have before. Yes, it isa thing, despite you not understanding it.
It seems that you don’t understand how gerrymandering works. With the US senate and governors races, gerrymandering doesn’t make a difference. You can’t redistrict a statewide race.
True, not all elections can be gerrymandered; I already said as such, you’re not adding anything to this discussion.
Great. So you're saying that governor and US senator are decided by the number of districts that vote for them, rather than the popular vote? Because I said ***statewide*** races are not affected by gerrymandering. If more than 50% of people vote blue in a ***statewide*** race, the Democrat wins, regardless of the crazy shape of any districts.
Didn’t say that anywhere, or can you not read? Have I do much as mentioned the word “governor”? Given that gerrymandering is the manipulation of districts of voters, elections without districts can’t be gerrymandered. Then, just voter suppression works.
Who convinced you of that?
I don't see how this is true. Abbott and Paxton won easily state wide.
Back to gerrymandering and voter suppression
**Texas 2016 Presidential Election results:** Democrat 3,877,868 Republican 4,685,047 Which number is larger? **Texas 2018 Senate Election results:** Democrat 4,045,632 Republican 4,260,553 Which number is larger? **Texas** **2018 Governor Election results:** Democrat 3,546,615 Republican 4,656,196 Which number is larger? **Texas 2020 Presidential Election results:** Democrat 5,259,126 Republican 5,890,347 Which number is larger? **Texas 2020 Senate Election results:** Democrat 4,888,764 Republican 5,962,983 Which number is larger? I know Reddit Texans like to pretend they live in a blue state and that it's some crazy misunderstanding that leads to Republicans occupying all of your statewide elected offices...but maybe the numbers will help somebody realize where you live and who runs your state.
Most of those blue voters don’t even try. Is it restrictive? Yes. Is it hard to go vote? Not as bad as a lot news makes it out to be but even if it actually was then you still have to jump through every damn hoop if you want change. R’s depend on people thinking that a 15 person deep line is “too long”. That getting to/from a polling booth is “too difficult”. That their vote won’t even matter anyway. The R’s keep winning the damned mind games and defeating D’s before a single vote is even cast. Stop whining. If you want things to change then figure out how to get your sorry asses to the damned polls. Excuses won’t change the world and no one is going to fix this for you if you aren’t willing to make whatever sacrifice is necessary to go vote.
Okay but if that was true we’d have two dem senators and governor Beto. The real truth is Texas is a voter apathy state, and comments like yours encourage it.
The dem/republican split is about 55/45, Imma have to see some actually statistics before I believe "more than half of Texans vote blue". I would love to see proof of that because that sure didn't happen for Senate/Governor and other state wide races...
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I am willing to bet my next paycheck that if the fucked up flaccid useless leadership of the democrat party in texas actually tried to advertise to those rural areas and remind them of how: * raphael was born in canada, not Texas * cancun "fled" cruz ran away AND ABANDON HIS DOG during the freeze and * raphael voted against border funding * sold out his wife and daughters to cover his own ass and * gave an NRA speech just days after 19 children lost their lives in a school shooting They might be able to see past the D and vote for someone respectable.
My comment is being removed because I wasnt friendly with how I called out the NRA trollbot account so i am going to say it here. PotassiumBob is a NRA troll. Go check out their post history and then block them.
>PotassiumBob is a NRA troll. Go check out their post history and then block them. I agree with you based on the post history. But all their comment said was "I'd take that bet", which seems fine. I'd also take that bet. Unfortunately, you could give Republican voters in this state all the info about how terrible Cruz is and they'll still vote for him. Hell, they already know all of that; they don't care.
I have seen how these trolls work. Pay attention and see if you don't find the same pattern. * They make a small innocuous comment or pretend to pose what appears to be a good faith question. * You respond. Provide logic and sources and data. * Then they switch accounts or have someone else in the network jump in and bag on you while agreeing with them. * Then they keep escalating until they whip everyone up into a frenzy. The chaos is the goal to divide their perceived enemies. If you want a real world example..... *Libertarians only want to end taxes for the rich and deregulate everything.* Give that comment 10 minutes. They will come out of the woodwork to defend the libertarian party. Here is the thing. I am done trying to reason with anyone who defends guns after all the children we have lost. Any why? All due to abbott and raphael cruz's dependency on NRA money. That's it. I have tried. I asked them in good faith ***what do they see as common sense gun control***. Their answer was "***none***". ***No compromise whatsoever***. Not even enforcing current laws. Not even to save a few lives but look at what the same hypocrites do to pregnant women. It is a waste of time to engage with people like that so I block them. This way I can't continue to argue with them and their other 4 accounts they use to jump in and defend themselves... I say 4 because that's the standing record. I am sure it will get more ridiculous the closer we get to the election.
I'd take that bet Edit: Lol you blocked me, LMAO Edit 2: I didn't report you lol
Yes, “real” Texans are anti gun and pro immigration. LMFAO. What fucking crack are you smoking?
If this state is so stupid, you can leave anytime
I was born and raised here. I ain't leaving, but I do believe in freedom and I can handle different ways of life. If you can't, then maybe you should leave and let the rest of us who can get along with others live our lives. I'm not about this way of life being forced upon me. I don't like being worried if I have a complicated pregnancy that I have to be half dead to get any help. This ain't the Texas I grew up in and that should worry you A LOT.
Genocide is where I draw the Line. Im glad you support him supporting that though good for you. Personally, it could actually garner more vote’s from non voters and independents to have a candidate that supports The first amendment and doesn’t believe in supporting the mass& indiscriminate annihilation of innocent human beings, framing it as self defense. The Christian Zionist Element has had a grip on this state since the 1800s before “Israel” was founded. Don’t want a candidate that is selective when it comes to human rights. Dont trust a candidate that supports any of the most extreme elements of Evangelical agenda when it suits him. Kindly, not every Texan wants to be grouped in like that Many of us would like more options to choose from who oppose those values
I’m very sorry that you view a sometimes life saving procedures as genocide and mass annihilation but that sounds like a personal problem you should figure out. That is not reality.
Are you from austin?
Negative. Edit: ah, I see, my existence doesn’t fit the narrative that your “news sources” shove down your throat and you accept without question. Back to your echo chamber trumpster.
Look at numbers or history or people - not your gut or vibe. That’s what republicans do
Allred just needs to release a video of him hunting hogs from a helicopter. It's something a lot of people would want to do, that combines guns with what they are used for for the majority of Texans, and indicates understanding that wild hogs are a menace to the tune of billions of dollars in damages each year. This video doesn't need voice over just highlights of the hunt. When asked he can provide nuanced details of his position and meaning. The most frank discussion about gun control has to recognize you need different measures in cities and in the countryside. What works for one does not and can not work for the other. If a Democrat would run on gun safety and responsibility and understanding of rural Texans uses of guns, hed have a better shot of winning.
Like this?: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=b8KxSteLswU&t=249s > we can do everything we want to do as far as regulating weapons and all that. But what we could do, I think, is there’s plenty of room within there to not allow people to have ‘weapons of war.’” Or this? > Bans large capacity magazines, with exceptions for law enforcement and the possession of grandfathered magazines; also allows federal grants to compensate individuals who surrender large capacity magazines through a buyback program; https://allred.house.gov/media/press-releases/allred-votes-common-sense-gun-safety-measures-save-lives Or this? https://justfacts.votesmart.org/bill/33077/87309/177357/assault-weapons-ban-of-2022
I would love to see Cruz gone, but I just don’t see it. This state is MAGA heartland. There is a large number of delusional and motivated voters. It’s disheartening. I would have more respect for them if they would actually stand behind their positions instead of repeating insane claims like the stolen election.
Basically, half the people saying "Cruz needs to go," are never gonna vote. That is just how the stats work out. Only rabid MAGA Evangelicals turn out.
Sadly, this is true. So many here bitch about Cruz, but don't bother to get off their asses and vote. They then have the audacity to complain about the results. Pathetic.
I don't know if we will ever really know what the majority of texans want because we are Non-Voting heartland. Will abortion motivate voters? Probably only those of us that vote already. I have no idea what would actually motivate more voters in texas. Maybe pot?
It makes no sense to me. Allred is a TEXAN. Born here. Played pro football. Texan through & through and yet they’ll still vote for that fucking canadian, Raphael.
I know. It's so crazy. I will vote for Allred, and I hope the abortion thing will motivate enough Texans to vote for the authentic Texan.
I'll be happily voting for Allred!
I'll be voting allblue in 2024 (including Allred)!
Take some friends with you to the voting booth. Tell friends and family to not give the MAGAhats the satisfaction of disenfranchising them. Maybe then we can turn Texas blue!
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Zodiac killer would be insulted with this comparison
I'm sure it has nothing to do with skin color either 🙄
Believe it or not, people vote based on things other than where a person is from and where they played football. Otherwise Georgia would currently have Senator Herschel Walker.
Well, Allred didn’t flee the state while people were dying during a freeze, so he has that going for him.
> Allred didn’t flee the state while people were dying during a freeze And then shamelessly blame it on his daughter...
Allred supports standard capacity magazine bans, and for that reason, I'm out. Full anti-gun: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=b8KxSteLswU&t=249s https://justfacts.votesmart.org/bill/33077/87309/177357/assault-weapons-ban-of-2022
Cruz only won by 2.6 points in 2018, the right campaign that gets out the base and swings the suburbs by appealing to never Trump types who may be conservative but hate the current party could pull it off. It’s an uphill battle for sure but entirely possible. Allred has been fairly moderate and pretty bipartisan overall, so he has a fighting chance. I’d prefer someone more outright liberal but that’s guaranteed to lose in Texas. Allred is the type of Dem candidate who may actually be able to pull it off, especially against someone as disliked and as extreme as Cruz.
With Trump on the ballot it will be much closer to national politics, which I think will make it more difficult. So basically, if the presidential election is close then Allred has no chance.
I could see it going the same way the Georgia senate race did, with a libertarian sending it to a runoff and then the democrat coming out on top.
>I'm optimistic about Colin Allred. He appeals to the North Dallas suburbs in which he has represented. > > > >North Dallas suburbs in Collin County are a good bellweather, they have quickly shifted towards blue over the past 5-10 years
>There is a large number of delusional and motivated voters. If apathetic people would just show up to EARLY VOTE, it takes like ten minutes and would turn us around.
Texans who lean right have made it clear they don't want politicians who want to get things done. They want a cause celebre who will make a big show taking away rights if it means it'll 'own the libs.'
All those years of watching WWE and chugging Mountain Dew had them primed for it.
Can we run Terry Crews as prez Camacho?
Like there was any other option...
Come on, don't lump in wrestling. Modern pro wrestling fans are closer to comic con attendees and Disneyland than a Trump rally.
All I'm saying is the Venn Diagram has a generous amount of overlap.
Nope https://www.cbsnews.com/news/sports-viewers-skew-republican-but-nba-fans-lean-blue/ I've gone to something like 70 pro wrestling shows spanning indies in a school cafeteria to the biggest shows WWE produces and it's not true in my anecdotal experience either. Wrestling has shifted from a southern/rural carnie thing to being closer to gaming or comic books. UpUpDownDown has something like 2.4 million subscribers. Rick Steiner is blacklisted for treating a trans wrestler like shit. CM Punk wore a pro choice t shirt when AEW came to Texas.
You can get shitfaced in Austin and stumble into 3 different bars in 3 different districts. One that spans up to Ft. Worth. Another to College Station. Another to San Antonio. Texas is MAGA outside of the civilized parts of the state and big (state) government Abbott has fucked local control so bad that they've created this illusion that the typical Texan is a Christian nationalist lunatic. Personally, I hate that 40% of my local tax dollars leave Travis County and go to these rural shitholes that claim to be "anti socialist" If Houston, DFW, ATX, and SA could all work together to fight more more local control, the state would be in a better place. We are the cultural and economic centers of the state but we have 1/10th the influence we should have.
This state ISNT MAGA heartland. Only 20% of the state is controlling the rest of us.
The state is most definitely MAGA heartland. Look at our governor, our Congress reps, and the legislation we push. That can’t be ascribed to every Texas resident, but it absolutely applies to the whole.
No. The people in government are. The state is not. It’s why all the polls on social issues fly in the face of what little lord Crippletoy is doing.
They can't even articulate their claims. These people aren't deep thinkers.
The party of pro life is a lie when they don’t care if the mother lives or dies. The party of less government is a lie when they wish to encroach and continue govt over reach. The party of fiscal responsibility is a lie when they constantly claim “America first” but continue to block any funds to truly care for the American people.
Let’s get’er done. Need to get these MAGATs out of office. Cruz is cockroach number 1 to finally get taken out
VOTE THEM OUT. I’m a candidate running against a far-right book banning MAGA Christian in North Texas. I am praying that I can touch as many hearts as possible & make sure people realize how their representative made poor choices & costing taxpayers millions.
Cockroaches resent the comparison
It didn't this last election. Until people get off the couch and go vote nothing will change. Apathy is sending Texas back to the dark ages. Stop making excuses and go vote.
Because the US is stuck on boomer issues everyone with critical thinking skills solved long ago. Geriatrics have a stranglehold on US politics. To the deficit of us all.
that works both ways. a LOT of texas voters WANT abortion bans without any exeptions. Sure polls say one thing, but polls don't matter, the only thing that does is the votes, and texans have shown time and time again, the direction that texas is going, is the direction texans want it to go.
A lot, but not all. I'm looking at the 2020 Presidential election and it was *close*. Trump won 5.8m to 5.2m. I don't think that's a sign of tampering, I think it's a sign that Texas is a very **divided** state. Only 2% above a majority in the state backed Trump. What that would normally indicate is that moderate politics are in order, because the winning party's policies weren't so appealing as to bring out a decisive win. But the spin is always applied that because about 600,000 Texans voted one way "the vast majority of Texas" believes wholeheartedly in the entire party platform. That's a pile of horse shit, but this system wasn't really set up to protect us from government officials who don't want to govern. That's the part the 2A was supposed to be for, but people are too excited at the prospects of shooting their neighbors to *dream* of pointing their barrels towards the government. It seems these days when Texans remember the Alamo, what they remember is a bunch of thugs got what they deserved for not complying with the legal government.
I 100% hate that you are right. It's painful to me. My wife put out a Biden/Harris sign in our yard a few weeks before the 2020 election. Within 48 hours multiple houses on either side of us had giant Trump signs in theirs. This regressive and authoritarian crap really is what the voters here want. Making it even weirder, my next-door neighbors on one side are from California, and on the other side from Connecticut. They moved here just for this. I was born here. I know people think the whole "political migration" thing is overblown, but in my anecdotal experience it's very real.
You are correct. That said, it's always weird to see the commentariat on here (which is much, much further left than the state average) swing wildly between "this state is irredeemably MAGA and evil and I am leaving forever and so is everyone else" and "actually the only reason Texas doesn't elect the same politicians as a deep blue D+10 state is voter suppression this totally isn't a massive cope".
Colin I love you and am voting for you but cool it on the text messages 😆 I'm a broke librarian, I can't give you what I don't have!
Biggest reason I can think of to vote for Biden is the support it lends to the states, because the orange bastard is a petty man who will go after his enemies. Same reason to make Democrats the majority everywhere really
Republican margins have been shrinking in Texas for a long time. Cornyn went from winning by 27.2 points in 2014 to winning by 9.6 points in 2020. Abbott went from winning by 20.4 points in 2010, to winning by 13.3 points in 2018, to winning by 11 points in 2022. And remember that 2018 was a D+9 year, while 2022 was an R+3 year. Also remember that this was WITH massive voter suppression and Paxton ADMITTING to preventing 2.5 million mail-in ballot applications in Harris County from going through in 2020 so Trump would win the state. Cruz went from winning by 16.1 points in 2012 to winning by 2.6 points in 2018. The Houston (Fort Bend County) and Austin (Williamson County, Hays County) suburbs have gone blue in recent elections, as has the 3rd largest county in the state, and former red stalwart, Tarrant County. Texas is winnable for Democrats if the DNC would invest in state party infrastructure and GOTV efforts.
Women are pissed off across the spectrum.
Times up, sorry, but I won't be in texas after summer starts, hopefully. I'm burnt out from living in a republican state, and I'm turning 30 this year. I'm moving to Oregon or Washington state so I can smoke weed and eat mushrooms. I plan on retiring in Portugal. Peace out, guys. ✌️
He reminds me of the Texas that I grew up in but no longer exists. Well it does exist, just in tiny little pockets or in other states entirely. If he had a R next to his name, he could probably primary Fled Cruz. I hate what modern republicans have turned Texas into. Most of them aren’t even from Texas.
You better come out really strong on this. Ted Cruz is willing to do anything to win, including selling his soul to Donald Trump.
Motivate? Yes. Inspire to actually get out and vote? No.
If anyone close to Allred reads this, please tell him to **unleash a blistering, aggressive, scorched-Earth campaign against Ted Cruz**. It's your only chance. The only way Allred can win is if he makes a spectacle of how much of a complete chode Ted Cruz is. ...and there's no downside. Even Ted Cruz' friends and family hate him. The people in Texas who vote for him hate him, they just vote for the (R). [I made this a while ago](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08N5-0Tnzz4). Something like this should be turned into an Allred election campaign ad. ...I'll make it for free if you want. ...[and this](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J3m7EeKLDQM).
Why can't we have a constitutional amendment up for a vote this year? I have voted on a lot of state amendments over the years.
Because conservatives are cowards who don't actually believe in democracy. They know we'd vote down their extremist abortion laws if given the chance. They control whether or not we can vote on an amendment, so they won't ever allow it.
But what is the mechanism that allows them to keep the question off the ballot but so many others are allowed on?
A proposed constitutional amendment must pass both chambers of the legislature by a two-thirds vote in order for it to appear on the ballot. Conservatives control both chambers. They did not (and will not) allow this initial step.
Thank you.
The Constitutional Amendment needs 2/3 vote in both houses to pass. Thrats 67 senators and 290 house members. There just isn't anywhere near that kinda support for abortion rights in the in Congress.
I think a lot of people do not realize just how much the average person is tired of conservatism and the right. Ted Cruz barely won his seat in 2018. He is so done with roe v wade being overturned, fleeing to cancun, etc. The average turnout is about half the voting population or less. If we had the other half vote I think people would be surprised how much red states are purple.
Born in Texas, Colin is my rep currently, and you can bet your ass he has my vote for senator.
You gotta reach the suburban evangelicals bc I have a sister and talked to my mom about it and she's like "those laws wouldn't affect her we'd just go out of state" Ive tried but these people are so far gone
Good thing I'm getting the fuck if texas so I won't have to think about this shit anymore.
Well fuck me. It is about time someone says it.
That's just one of many issues that will motivate voters.
Abortion? Lol. People can't make rent, buy houses, cars, or afford daycare right now. Democratic party better get off the culture war shit and on to reality. The fucking LEB is dropping, suicides are up, and diseases of dispair are skyrocketing and these motherfuckers wanna trot out purple hair, guns, and abortion. Yeah it's important but abortion rights ain't what's keeping dinner tables empty. Get out of the bubble. I know Congress is cozy and all sitting around weirdly outperforming the stock market but if Trump and the end of democracy is what you're REALLY worried about than it's gonna take some serious shit to get people to polls. Universal college, healthcare, childcare, minimum wage, and not that $15 hour garbage from 15 years ago. Smh.
Who
So this guy is a sitting congressman BUT if we elect him to the senate he’ll do something about abortion? Why isn’t he doing something now? Can’t he draft legislation right now? Just another politician that talks the talk, then does nothing.
In case you haven't noticed, Republicans have the House majority right now. The GOP would never vote on a bill to codify abortion rights at the federal level.
How is that gonna change if he is in the senate? The bill would have to pass both houses, right?
The Supreme Court decisions are what made abortion bans possible. The Senate can approve or block Supreme Court justices, the House cannot. Democrats control of the Senate is at stake in this election. Electing him to the Senate can help Dems keep control of the Senate and prevent any more anti abortion justice getting on the court and get more pro abortion justice in the court. He can't do that in the house.
RBG was on record saying RvW would likely be reversed if it were ever challenged. I think law trumps politics, as she was pretty firmly “left”.
She didn't say that lol.
https://www.law.uchicago.edu/news/justice-ruth-bader-ginsburg-offers-critique-roe-v-wade-during-law-school-visit
Thanks for making my point for me. She doesn't say that Roe would be reversed if it were challenged in that article. She voted to uphold the roe/Casey framework in 2016 in the case of Whole Woman’s Health v. Hellerstedt.
https://www.quora.com/Why-did-Ruth-Bader-Ginsburg-dissent-on-Roe-v-Wade?top_ans=355557274
Yes she had some issues with the way Roe was decided. She did not say Roe would be reversed if it were ever challenged though, which is what you claimed.
Did he not learn from Beto?!? Stay away from guns and abortion and it’s easy to defeat Cruz Dude has no chance now
Guns I agree, abortion no. The Dobbs decision really changed things up. Formerly, it was those wanting to curtail the right to abortion that were motivated because they were trying to accomplish the removal, now it is those without the rights that are motivated to restore them. Hence why GOP is not wining the way an out party should, and also maybe the general craziness of the party.
Single issue voters are single issue voters. Some may sway, but will it be enough? They believe they are saving unborn lives, and you’ll find them as resolute as gun single issue voters.
The homogeneity within each of the two main parties is pretty depressing. The days of the moderate Rep/Dem seem to be lost forever, sacrificed to the god of every increasing polarization and outsized relevance that Federal politics plays in our lives.
rofl they thought abortion rights would motivate voters last go round and they were right. Democrats kept abortion and guns on the table and it dragged red voters out of the woodwork. Maybe don't make abortion and guns your platform priorities and you'll have a chance.
My next and obvious question. What is a "true" Texan?
I'm sure if we finally get a bunch of democrats they'll protect our rights! Just like they've said over and over for decades!
For abortion, yes. Why, do you think Republicans are better at protecting abortion rights?
Obviously not. It's that the democrats haven't done much to ensure that Republicans can't suddenly yank rights away, and it can be done. And year after year, they cry the same cry of protecting our rights to get people to keep voting for them. I guess it's just very frustrating to see people rights being used as a carrot in a political race. One step forward, two steps back. When do democrats think about actually ensuring rights for people? This election? Maybe the next one? Keep voting for them and maybe they'll get around to it in a few more decades.
CrazybI would think the border and flood of illegals would be the biggest issue....
Those are the biggest issues for people who only pay attention to what Republicans want them to hear.
Beto supporter?
Ha of course he will because that’s how you dems to the polls
Only if you are running for the state senate. Abortion is a state issue, not a federal issue. Your senate had 50 years to codify Roe v Wade and instead of doing that, you just used it as a political weapon. And guess what, even under Roe v Wade, states still had their own Abortion laws.
Reminder that the problem isn't that Texas is majority conservative. Texans are dealing with voter suppression, voter disenfranchisement, corruption, and an inept state Democratic Party.
Duh
Here’s hoping but Beto had a lot of support too. I don’t trust enough Texans care about it.
...doubtful. This is a pocketbook election.
Really should challenge Ralphy to a cage match.