Feel good update: Texas elections! (Remember those?)
Last week Texas voted and Run for Something candidates won. What a damn delight.
Happy Monday from beautiful/weird/delightful Austin, Texas — a perfect place to tell you about how our Run for Something candidates did in the Texas primaries last week. (Can you believe that was only last week?)
We had 14 candidates on the ballot on Tuesday. Five were unopposed and are continuing on against horrific GOPers. Four ran great campaigns and came up short — we’re proud of their work. And FIVE candidates won, and are moving on to either ru0offs or the general election! A little about them:
Erin Zwiener, Texas State House, District 45, in Randye. Erin is a fifth-generation Texan with a work ethic that Time Magazine described viscerally in January: “Two months pregnant and fighting morning sickness, Zwiener canvassed on college campuses for hours at a time with nothing in her stomach but Pedialyte.” Erin is an author, educator, and conservationist from Driftwood, TX.
Aurora Martinez Jones, 459th District Court Judge in Austin. (For context: The 459th District Court is a new court, focusing on civil matters like administrative appeals, personal injury, employment law, and business litigation. A bulk of the cases set to come through the court will be family law; things like estate planning, child custody, and prenuptial agreements.) Aurora is a daughter of immigrants and currently is an Associate Judge in Travis County presiding over the Family Drug Treatment Court and Child Protective Services dockets.
Jessica Gonzalez, Texas State House, District 104, in Dallas. Jessica took on an incumbent the Dallas News called “relatively ineffective since he won his first election for the seat in 1992.” She’ll be one of a few LGBTQ Latinas joining the state house this fall.
Cynthia Maria Chapa, 288th District Court Judge, in San Antonio. (For context: The 288th District court that handles mostly family issues.) An attorney for more than a decade, Cynthia has been more than just a lawyer at the courthouse. Cynthia worked in the Texas House of Representatives as a District Director for 14 years before going into private practice.
Andrew Morris, Texas House of Representatives, District 64. Andrew is an immigrant and 10-year resident of Denton County. He lives in in Argyle with his wife and four rescue cats, loves musicals & working to making the world a better place.
We worked closely with the Texas Democratic Party to recruit candidates this cycle, helping find candidates to contest 133 out of 150 state legislative seats — a nearly 50 percent increase over 2016 and the highest figure since at least the early ’90s. Fielding candidates all across the state will allow Democrats to capitalize on the wave election this fall, and will hopefully yield some surprising wins!
Cliff Walker, Texas Democratic Party Director of Candidate Recruitment, told reporters: “Texas Democrats are making history in 2018, setting new candidate recruitment records for the State House and Senate. Run for Something was an important partner in helping us achieve that record recruitment, and continues to work with us to find great candidates who are running for city council, school board, and other local offices. We look forward to working with them to flip a lot of seats this fall.”
We love Election Days. We love them even more when Run for Something candidates win.
In other Run for Something/Run for Something-adjacent news…
— A peek inside the RFS slack after last week’s candidate intro call — a convo between me and Sarah Horvitz, our wonderful political director
— We had an amazing event in NYC last week — nearly 100 people came out to talk about art, representation, and politics.
— The Hill talked a bit about the flood of people running for state legislature. This movement is contagious.
— As more nursing moms run for office and win, statehouses are having to adapt their spaces to accommodate women’s needs. NPR dug in on what Virginia is doing — and what other states will have to do in the next few years.
— The millennials on the Charlotte City Council would rather you not call them millennials. You’ll L-O-L at what they prefer.
— Watch this great video of Bushra Amiwala, our 20 year old candidate for Cook County Board. She never fails to inspire.
— There is a wave of women running in Georgia. #ThePresentIsFemale
— There’s a Democrat running for every single Oregon Senate seat. Awesome.
Thanks for doing what you to do make this all possible. It’s making a difference.
Miss last week’s update? Catch up!