After losing big on Super Tuesday, Texas progressives hope to salvage some victories in July

[RandySF]

Judging from March, the ideological left wing of the Democratic Party in Texas should be inconsolable.

After months of high hopes, the faction ran into a centrist buzz saw in the March 3 primary. Joe Biden practically locked up the Democratic presidential nomination, and progressive candidates experienced electoral drubbings.

Among the fallen: presidential candidates Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, congressional candidate Jessica Cisneros, U.S. Senate hopeful Cristina Tzintzún Ramirez, and Audia Jones, a candidate for Harris County District attorney endorsed by Sanders.

But rather than licking their political wounds, leading progressive candidates still in the fight say they’re invigorated — and eager to use the coronavirus pandemic, fights over voting by mail and calls for police reform to score some late victories in the July runoffs.

“Every time we have a progressive run, we get a little bit closer,” said Sara Stapleton-Barrera, who is in a runoff against state Sen. Eddie Lucio Jr., D-Brownsville. “I feel like we’re slowly winning the war, but we have to get through some of these battles first.”

Perhaps the most energy is coming from Austin, where two runoffs have the attention of progressives. José Garza is competing in the nationally watched Democratic primary runoff for Travis County district attorney. Mike Siegel is vying for his party’s nomination in the 10th Congressional District’s Democratic primary runoff.



https://www.texastribune.org/2020/07/09/texas-progressives-july-runoffs/

[Indykatie]

1. If Our Far Left Wing Can Only Win in the Deepest Blue Districts They Should Stop Demanding Purity

in purple and red districts where only less progressive candidates can win. We need to continue to grow our congressional Democratic majority and we do that by running candidates that have broad appeal in a district. See Blue Wave of 2018. 41 seats were flipped and not a single one by a far left candidate.

[Gothmog]

2. Democrats zero in on health care and electability in final days of race to challenge McCaul

I really like Dr. Gandhi in this race

Link to tweet

Toward the beginning of the runoff, Gandhi picked up endorsements from two national groups: Planned Parenthood and Giffords, the anti-gun violence organization. But Siegel has been on more of a streak in the runoff, landing further in-district endorsements as well as the backing of two members of the Texas congressional delegation, Reps. Veronica Escobar of El Paso and Sylvia Garcia of Houston. Siegel also has won runoff endorsements from three former 2020 presidential candidates: Sanders, Elizabeth Warren and Marianne Williamson.

More recently, Gandhi countered with his own endorsement from a former White House hopeful: U.S. Sen. Kamala Harris of California, who called Gandhi a "progressive fighter who can win."

Gandhi has been the top fundraiser, raising $1.2 million to over $864,000 for Siegel as of June 24. However, the money race tightened considerably in the second quarter of 2020, with Gandhi's campaign saying he surpassed $256,000 and Siegel's saying he collected over $250,000.

Gandhi has also benefited from six figures of outside spending by 314 Action Fund, which works to elect more people to office with backgrounds in science, technology, engineering and mathematics. The group attacked Hutcheson in the primary and has returned to the fray in the runoff to target Siegel as unelectable, airing a TV ad that says voters "can't risk more of Mike McCaul and the Trump agenda."

[RandySF]

3. I hope it's Gandhi, too.

Any sense of how it's going?