TX-23

Hurd and JonesThursday night one of the most vulnerable Republicans, Will Hurd (TX-23), announced he is retiring. His gigantic district has the longest border with Mexico of any district in the U.S. and stretches from a sliver of east San Antonio down to the Rio Grande and then follows the border through Eagle Pass, Del Rio, Big Bend National Park, and Socorro just south of where El Paso and Ciudad Juarez meet.

Ro & Beto, 2 charismatic Democrats-- both refuse to give blanket endorsements to just anyone in a blue uniform... but for very different reasonsAccording to a CNN report last night, a Democratic Party robot in New Hampshire, Deb Nelson, the chair of the Hanover/Lyme Town Democrats, asked Beto to take the "Any Blue Will Do" pledge.

Saluda al Jefe!Republican Will Hurd's recent reelection wasn't exactly overwhelming. In the end, he beat a very weak Democratic opponent 103,285 (49.2%) to 102,359 (48.7%) in an R+1 district where Hillary beat Trump 49.8% to 46.4%. The district has-- by far-- the longest border with Mexico (over 800 miles) of any district in America.

This cycle, Democrats have grown used to winning special elections deep in red territory, as big anti-Trump Democratic turn-out surged to overwhelm demoralized and disgusted Republicans.

The Texas runoffs are May 22. And as The Nation noted this week, "Insurgent populists are facing off against establishment picks in a series of high-stakes runoffs." D.D. Guttenplan wasn't deterred by a bunch of progressive defeats in Tuesday's primaries in Ohio, North Carolina and Indiana.

In Texas' Tuesday primary the DCCC's biggest bet was in TX-23 and on Jay Hulings, a right-of-center dull corporate shill endorsed not just by the DCCC but also by the Blue Dogs, the New Dems, the Castro San Antonio political machine and every corrupt surrogate the DCCC could round up. (Don't ask me why the Congressional "Progressive" Caucus didn't back him; they must have forgotten.) Anyway, no one won outright and the nomination to face GOP incumbent Will Hurd in November will go to a May 22 primary runoff. But Hulings won't be in that runoff.

TX-21 candidate Derrick Crowe with Randy "IronStache" Bryce in San Antonio last weekIn a post early this morning, we saw how progressive former congressional candidate (PA-07) Paul Perry was so disgusted by the establishment's attitude about fundraising that he withdrew from the race.

Following up on today's long early morning post about how badly the GOP is screwing up 2018 for themselves, I want to warn that the DCCC can pull a rabbit out of the hat and lose enough districts so the GOP keeps control of the House True... it will be difficult but that is, after all, the only thing the DCCC is good at. They know how to screw up an election.

I'd love to know who hired PPP to poll the dozen House districts they polled this week. Notice that in some districts they polled the incumbent Republican against some crap Republican-lite conservaDem the DCCC is pushing-- Ann Kirkpatrick, Jason Crow, Angie Craig, Chrissy Houlahan-- even though there are competitive progressives in the races.

By "ideologically diverse" Ben Ray means recruiting anti-Choice conservativesIf I call one more progressive member of Congress today to ask him or her why the DCCC is stiffing so many progressive candidates during Candidates Week, which began yesterday, I'll hit an even dozen. And they all tell me basically the same thing: the DCCC says all candidates are welcome. Are they?