GOP Dirty Tricks in HD 134

Lloyd Oliver entering the Texas House District 134 as a Democrat is part of the reactionary-right plot to remove Sarah Davis from office. It’s straight from GOP Dirty Tricks 101.

Davis is hoping to beat her well-funded GOP-insider opponent in the primary by winning the swing voters of that district, pro-choice women who are in the middle enough that they’ll vote for the state’s one milquetoast not-quite-as-wretchedly-anti-Planned-Parenthood Republican as protection against a worse Republican.

But with cringe-inducing sexist buffoon Lloyd Oliver on the Democratic ticket, those voters will now be forced to consider the consequences of voting Republican—they might end up with a viscid and vile reprobate on the ballot for the Ds in the year of #MeToo.

Oliver, a man who said women who were victims of intimate partner violence shouldn’t go to court, but to boxing lessons, and explained away the violence by suggesting it was just foreplay. Really.

Do those swing voters pick Allison Sawyer, the Democrat, to keep Oliver off the ballot?

Or do they pick Sarah Davis to block her opponent, settling once again for the tepid tea of well-at-least-she’s-not-as-bad-as-the-rest-of-them representation?

Don’t be fooled. This isn’t just about a Texas House race.

This goat rope in the 134th has an impact on other races.

There’s strong overlap with CD-7, the most Democratic-trending GOP-held district in the country. With 7 Democrats in that race, every primary vote that doesn’t show up in the D column, and especially every woman’s vote that doesn’t show up in the D column, helps that blathering blemish of a do-nothing Republican, John Culberson, stay in power.

The most dangerous outcome for the GOP is strong pro-choice Democratic women with broad appeal and significant business experience winning in both the CD-7 and HD134 primaries, and then again in the general.

To clarify, the Republicans do not want to see a Lizzie Pannill Fletcher v. John Culberson match-up in CD-7 with Allison Sawyer in HD134 giving a vulnerable Republican a run for the money at the same time. 

This is the year Democrats could re-claim both of these seats. This is not a drill. That’s why EMILY’S List has endorsed Fletcher in the race.

Republicans will do anything to stop that from happening.

I don’t think Lloyd Oliver decided to enter this race of his own volition. I believe he was invited in by GOP operatives. Possibly some of the same ones whose fingerprints are already starting to show up in the CD-7 race.

Do I really think that this happens?

You bet.

Story time.

I met a man late one night in Jackson, Mississippi. One of the ways white privilege works is that people who are white assume that other white people share their political views and biases.

This man told me the story of being a young Republican political operative the year Democratic Senator James Eastland left office. A popular Misssissippi Democrat, Maurice Dantin, entered the race, as did a Republican named Thad Cochran. Dantin was favored to win.

This man I met was given thousands of dollars and sent, with a friend, to recruit a candidate who would split the Democratic vote. He and his friend recruited Charles Evers, mayor of Fayette and brother to the civil rights leader Medgar Evers, who had been assassinated in 1963 by a white supremacist.

Evers and Dantin split the vote, and Cochran won. He’s still there, forty years later.

Now, I don’t have proof. I can’t even remember the guy’s name, although I know how I could go about finding it out. But I have no reason not to believe it, especially in light of the stories I heard from a former boss who, with her then-husband whose name you might recognize, Roger Stone, got up to all sorts of dirty tricks and manipulation in GOP politics in the 70s in Virginia alongside their good friend Lee Atwater. Don’t know him? Google him.

This is the long-standing modus operandi of the party of Nixon.

What do I recommend?

Democrats and pro-choice independents and moderate pro-choice Republicans should support and vote for Allison Sawyer in the 134th and Lizzie Pannill Fletcher in the CD-7 primaries.

Then, work like hell to turn out votes for them in November.

Don’t get pulled into defending Sarah Davis. Even if she wins, she will be so marginalized and targeted by the religious zealots like Dan Patrick that she will be forced to vote against Planned Parenthood and common sense gun safety measures. Realize that even if she finds the courage to vote for PP or gun sense, she’s just one vote.

Do you want a symbolic vote, or do you want to win?

Symbolic votes don’t win. Majorities do.

It’s time to turn out for Democratic women if you care about the future of Texas, starting in HD 134 and CD 7.