Jason Westin

The first two states with 2018 primaries are Texas-- March 6-- and Illinois-- March 20. The thing is about the Texas primaries is that they're going to, in most cases, lead to primary runoffs on May 22.

The Texas primaries are less than a month away-- March 6. And the races are crowded. Or at least the seats that look the most flippable are crowded, even after lots of candidates have dropped out. Texas has 36 congressional districts. The very last one, TX-36, southeast Texas in the Houston area, is so red, that the DCCC isn't even contesting it.

If more congressional candidates did this, many of the country's problems would vanishI was listening to NPR yesterday on a long drive and they were interviewing two dullard Beltway operatives, a dumb Dem and an even dumber Republican. The dumb Dem, when asked about Net Neutrality's salience as an issue said no one cared much about it. And the dumber Republican went one further to say no one even knows what it is.

Last year Blue America looked carefully at the race in the west Houston congressional district held by Paul Ryan rubber stamp John Culberson. The district, which went from a pretty red area with a PVI of R+13 in 2015 voted 48.5% to 47.1% for Clinton (after giving Romney a 59.9-38.6% win over Obama) and now has a more manageable R+7 PVI.

Can you guess why we included this graphic on this post?45 Republicans looked at the stinky FISA bill on Thursday and could not pull themselves to vote YES. That means that had Pelosi, Hoyer and Clyburn held their caucus together, it could have been defeated. Instead, it passed 256-164. How the hell did that happen?

The west Houston congressional district (TX-07) is one of the most likely in the Lone Star State to flip from red to blue. The district, which stretches from West University Place and Belaire up through Spring Valley, Hunters Crook and Bunker Hill villages and west to Barker Reservoir and up to the Houston National Gold Club, Satsuma and Jersey Village. Traditionally red-- with a PVI of R+7-- Hillary beat Trump 48.5% to 47.1%.

Part of Señor Trumpanzee's absurd-- but effective-- pitch during his election campaign was about how he would be a champion for "the forgotten men and women of America." Instead he's been a champion for corporate executives, the Wall Street banksters and the wealthiest and greediest among us. And, slowly but surely, the forgotten men and women of America have begun to catch on.

A couple weeks ago, John Culberson had some crushing news when he read the results of PPP's survey of several hundred voters in his west Houston district (TX-07). His district's PVI had already slipped from a nice safe R+13 in 2015 to a much shakier R+7 this year. Romney had beaten Obama in TX-07 60-39%. Trump didn't fare as well. Hillary actually beat him 48.5% to 47.1%. The DCCC didn't bother running anyone against Culberson last year.

Yesterday, Newsweek warned that Jeff Sessions is planning to end the recognition of the legitimacy of medical marijuana before the end of the year.

Zero Humility by Nancy OhanianBefore Trumpanzee started demanding Ryan call his tax bill, "The Cut Cut Cut Act," Chuck Todd had reported that House Republicans were facing a major disadvantage with their tax plan, even before they delayed the rollout of their bill until today, namely that "their plan starts out underwater, according to