TX-27

After Blake Farenthold was forced out of Congress earlier in April for being a workplace perv, there was a vague hope Democrats could win his seat in a special election-- very vague. The DCCC gave the seat a thumbs down and refused to engage, especially after it was clear that the leading Democrat, Eric Holguin, is a progressive. The very gerrymandered district (TX-27) stretches along the Gulf from Corpus Christie and Port Aransas up through Victoria and Port Lavaca to Bay City and, incongruously, west through Shiner and Gonzales into the exurbs southeast of Austin.

After he was caught in a sex-and-payoff scandal, Blake Farenthold intended to serve out his term and not run for reelection. Instead he was forced to resign from Congress in disgrace.TX-27 s a very gerrymandered district that took a Hispanic-based Democratic district and made it Republican. In 2004, TX-27 was 68.1% Hispanic and the only congressman it had ever known was Democrat Solomon Ortiz.

In his interview with Vice (above) Trey Gowdy explains why “you won’t see me running for political office again. I’m surprised he’s even sticking it out for the rest of his term. He’s counting down the days--“19 more drives to the airport,” he said. And he admitted that the only goal of today’s Republican Party is to win elections. (I have some sad news for you, Trey-- it’s the only goal of today’s Democratic Party too.)Meanwhile everyone thought far right sex-predator Blake Farenthold was going to stick it out ‘till the end of his term too-- until Friday evening.

Until this weekend, Blake Farenthold was just another rich right-wing Texas backbencher who's never made a single contribution to anything in Congress. This weekend, news came out that his office paid $84,000 in taxpayer hush fund money to shut up a staffer who he sexually harassed. He was first elected in 2010, a Republican wave elected, against Blue Dog Solomon Ortiz, despite TX-27 then being a 73% district.