So, Beto O’Rourke made it official recently with his announcement that he will run to be Texas Democrats’ candidate for governor. The announcement pleased every member of that party not pining for actor Matthew McConaughey as Gov. Greg Abbott’s successor.
For the former El Paso congressman, success is a long shot in a state that hasn’t elected a Democrat to high office since the Spice Girls were riding high, twitter was a bird trill and the modern internet was still a hazy concept for most of us. The Democrats’ exile is now approaching biblical proportions, specifically the Israelites’ 40-year sojourn in the wilderness.
O’Rourke’s candidacy is likely to be as quixotic as his ill-starred campaign for the presidency in 2020, maybe as unlikely as the 1-8 Kansas Jayhawks coming into Austin expecting to vanquish the Texas Longhorns (which is to say, possible but highly improbable).
A third loss in a high-profile, high-expectation race would probably be the political death knell for the slightly tarnished Democratic darling — anybody seen Wendy Davis lately? — and yet for Texas itself we say “Hurray!” And again, “Hurray!”
No, this is not — repeat NOT — an endorsement of O’Rourke in his quest to deny Abbott a third term. It’s way too early to be making any kind of endorsement (even if we could be assured that the energetic, charismatic Democrat won’t be gazelling onto a barroom table top this time around).
We are endorsing O’Rourke’s candidacy — just as we endorse the efforts, however far-fetched, of Abbott’s two challengers from the GOP’s far-right fringe. Just as we endorse the candidacies of challengers to Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, Attorney General Ken Paxton and other statewide officeholders. In a healthy democracy, every officeholder is held to account. Even with the aid of partisan gerrymandering and party-serving barriers to voting, no one is anointed.
We endorse these candidacies because we endorse competition — the lifeblood of a healthy democracy.
Despite sliding-scale predictions that Democrats are going to break the GOP headlock any day now, there’s little sign that statewide Republican candidates are going to lose their hold anytime soon.
Abbott seems to be worried, nonetheless — not so much about O’Rourke but about his aggressive GOP foes, former state Sen. Don Huffines and former state party chairman Allen West. Although the governor is sitting on a campaign cache of at least $55 million, those Huffines billboards along Texas interstates seem to be making him jumpy. How else to explain his Pavlovian pandering to the far right? Whatever cock-eyed notion that comes along to enrapture the Trumpian majority in his party, from anti-mandate COVID mandates to school library witch hunts, a trembling Abbott is going to endorse it.
Watching a seasoned politician who had slightly moderate tendencies in years past kowtow to the extremists in his party is downright embarrassing. Still, we’re happy to see him looking over his starboard shoulder. Whatever the prompt, Texas voters need to hear him justify his positions.
O’Rourke has his own issues, namely an ill-considered remark during his presidential campaign about confiscating guns. Yes, he was talking only about assault rifles intended for the battlefield — but in Texas, that distinction is mere semantics. A gun is a gun is a gun. And nobody is taking it!
Nevertheless, if O’Rourke becomes the Democratic nominee, the former congressman is knowledgeable and articulate enough to force the governor to defend his record on issues that really matter.
The most obvious is Abbott’s dangerously inadequate response to the devastating winter storm last February, a natural disaster, compounded by a man-made energy grid disaster, that not only left millions without power and water but also claimed an estimated 700 lives. Abbott, his lackeys in the Legislature and the outrageously compromised Texas Railroad Commission addressed the state’s grid failure by authorizing billions in ratepayer-backed bonds to cushion the bottom line for utilities stung when natural gas prices soared during the height of the storm. Natural gas suppliers, whose lack of winter-preparedness played a major role in the crisis, got off light.
Border security, Medicaid expansion and related health issues, the environment and climate change, the state’s infrastructure needs, public education, gun violence, property taxes — after eight years in office, the governor has much to answer for. In a healthy democracy, it’s good that he will have to.
It’s a good thing, as well, that the state’s most powerful politician, Patrick, won’t be waltzing to victory this time. Three capable and experienced Democrats are vying for the opportunity to send the hyper-partisan former radio shock jock into political retirement.
Incumbents invariably have an advantage, particularly a Texas Republican who has raised more money than any American governor in history. With a weakened Democratic incumbent in the White House and with Texas Democrats trying to fend off existential despair — even with O’Rourke on the ticket — Abbott is likely to be cruising in 2022. Still, it’s way too early for predictions.
It’s a long way to next November, but to borrow from the late children’s book writer Maurice Sendak, “Let the rumpus start.” And let the people decide.
Houston Chronicle
