Rumor has it former Constable Roy Williams Jr. running for Congress in the 30th District being vacated by Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson. That rumor is now confirmed true.
The rumor has been confirmed by two members of Dallas County Democratic Party leadership and makes Williams the fourth candidate in a field that includes one term Texas Representative Jasmine Crockett, Jane Hope Hamilton, and most recently, Jessica Mason.
Roy Williams Jr. Running For Congress
Williams the former Dallas County Constable for Precinct 4 most recently ran for Dallas County Sheriff, losing to Marian Brown, but his campaign on her potential mismanagement has been prescient.
Alexandra Guio is not missing – she is just ghosting Paula Blackmon and city staff – after her appointment to the Dallas Redistricting Commission and recent decision to launch a campaign for House District 114.
Guio was appointed to the Redistricting Commission in early March 2021. Local city rules prohibit city council appointees from being candidates or treasurers for political campaigns.
Guio’s news comes after Paul Ridley demanded the removal of former D14 City Council Member David Blewett’s appointee to the Redistricting Commission.
Alexandra Guio
Guio did not respond to a call from Other Side Dallas, but at least one other candidate was not surprised.
“Alex thinks she is going to roll into progressive HD114 as a former Republican with a commitment problem and we’re going to let that slide,” said a local Democratic activist.
Currently, there are four announced candidates in the race for HD114: Charlie Gearing, Chris Leal, and Kendall Scudder. There is the possibility of a fifth candidate entering the race shortly.
Two North Texas Democratic incumbents may be facing indie centrist candidates in the upcoming 2022 election after gerrymandering says two sources close to Austin decision makers.
US Representative Colin Allred and State Senator Nathan Johnson may face not one, but two, candidates in the 2022 general election.
Indie Centrist Candidates
Allred has benefited from official administration visits like Secretary of Labor Marty Walsh’s summer visit, but may still be gerrymandered into a tougher district making his progressive voting record harder to defend.
Nathan Johnson, similar to Allred won in 2018 riding an anti-Trump wave, that may not exist in 2022 with Trump off the ballot.
Since 2020, many local Republicans have been associated with QAnon and the GOP voting losses of suburban women voters to Democrats over the past four years. The most recent in North Dallas is probably Barry Wernick.
The Republican Party currently has four candidates running for office in Texas Congressional District 32 per Ballotpedia. They are Montgomery Markland, Brad Namdar, Ricardo Salazar, and Gary Slagel.
No candidates are listed for State Senate District 16, but the Dallas County Republican Party, suffering from its own dysfunction, currently lists candidates who lost their primary races back in 2018.
Additionally, Don Huffines, who lost his re-election bid against State Senator Johnson four years ago, is aggressively running for Governor taking swings at Greg Abbott over the border and the electric grid failure. It is not obvious who would be running for his old seat, but his brother was Dallas County Republican Chair.
Govenor Abbott denies COVID19 response resources requested by Dallas area hospitals battling coronavirus admissions.
Hospitals in Dallas and throughout North Texas say they need hundreds of additional emergency staff to deal with a surge of COVID-19 cases. The state is denying their request for emergency personnel.
“Local governments across Texas now have access to more than $10 billion in federal Coronavirus Local Fiscal Recovery Funds that are available to pay for urgent COVID-19 response needs, including medical surge staffing,” said Chris Van Deusen, director of media relations for DSHS.
He continues “… As always, emergency response begins at the local level. Encouraging health care facilities to utilize the resources already available within their communities will ensure the response can be as flexible as possible. They can work with their cities and counties to ramp up or shift necessary staffing as needed throughout this phase of the pandemic. Most health care facilities have relationships with staffing firms, but we can help connect them with the firms we used, if needed.”
Abbott’s move comes after Dickinson City Council member and State Republican Executive Committee member H. Scott Apley, 45, died in a local hospital around 3 a.m. Wednesday morning.
He was admitted to the facility in Galveston on Sunday with “pneumonia-like symptoms,” and was hooked up to a ventilator as his condition worsened.
Texas Republican Party Chairman Matt Rinaldi asked the Apley family be “lifted up in prayer,” but neglected to mention the fact that Apley’s death was COVID19-related or that he actively discredited attempts to slow the infections.
Apley is a staunch conservative and devout Christian. But based on his social media activity, Apley didn’t believe COVID was going to affect him or his family, and appears to have ties to the QAnon movement increasing in numbers in the Texas Republican Party.
The Conservative Political Action Conference – CPAC – had no surprises just one day after a local reporter said QAnon was alive and well in Texas. They lived up to their reputation of bringing out conspiracy theorists, grifters, and the far right.
The Dallas conference comes just a little over one month after Michael Flynn, Trump’s fired National Security Advisor, called for a Myannmar style coup in the United States.
So far this Dallas Convention Center conference has not mentioned another coup attempt on the United States, but there has been plenty of red meat for a conservative base that suffered a loss to Joe Biden and had numerous down ballot problems too in the city CPAC is being held. Trumpian tactics did not work locally in 2021 city council races, but some candidates appear to be ready to try them again.
In one session, Rep. Madison Cawthorn said President Joe Biden was trying to distribute COVID19 vaccines door to door so that he could steal Bibles and guns.
CPAC Doesn’t Surprise – But Perhaps Donald Trump Jr. Does
The CPAC event itself may not have been a surprise, but one shock came whent he former president’s son, Donald Trump Jr., came on stage and said Texas was only a “top 25” conservative state.
His attack on the state’s conservative credibility seemed aimed at Austin, but it was not clear if his comments were pointed at their city council or Governor Greg Abbott. Already Abbott has two rivals for the party nomination including former state senator Don Huffines who spoke at the conservative conference also.
In June, Huffines came out attacking Abbott for his lack of executive ability over the power grid – a major issue for suburban voters in Dallas and other cities.
Trump Jr’s appearance also fueled rumors that he was abusing illegal or prescription drugs in what appears to be a drug fueled mania while he took shots at Hunter Biden.
“I totally understand addiction. It’s terrible. We all know people that have suffered from it. It doesn’t absolve you from being a total piece of garbage in every other aspect of your life,” said Donald Trump Jr.
Former President Donald will be in Dallas on Sunday, July 11, 2021 to close out the conservative conference.
QAnon in Texas politics says Steven Monacelli during a broadcast today of Texas Standard.
In the interview, Monacelli says “QAnon believers have either won office or aggressively sought it” in several jurisdictions including three Congressional campaigns.
In Dallas, there have been a number of clubs hosting speakers on human trafficking and highlight conspiracies around the idea.
Q is an abbreviation for QAnon and a screen name for the anonymous creator of the cult movement.
The Q movement along with other right wing nationalists have popularized a number of social media hashtags including #thegreatawakening and #wwg1wga – which stands for “where we go one, we go all.” These are found frequently on Facebook and Twitter. They are also highlighted in federal court document surrounding the January 6th insurrection attempt at the US Capitol.
QAnon In Texas Featured Prominently In June
The “For God and Country Patriot Roundup” conference in June featured major Republican speakers including former Trump National Security Advisor Michael Flynn, who called for a Myannmar style coup in the United States, and Rep. Louie Gohmert (TX01), from Tyler, Texas.
Texas Governor Candidate Don Huffines says June rolling blackouts are “ridiculous.”
Huffines has announced for Governor and the gloves have already come off over issues such as border security, government spending, and now what Huffines describes as a “track record of failure.”
Huffines campaign goes on to say “current leadership failed to properly address our power grid issues, and as a result countless lives are at risk once again.”
Texas Governor Greg Abbott has not responded to multiple requests for comment about the situation or Huffines’ comments, but last week claimed that the ERCOT situation was fixed.
June Rolling Blackouts
The news of potential June rolling blackouts came yester day as ERCOT announced it was nearing energy production capacity just days after the Texas legislature adjourned without taking serious action on the February blackouts that led to millions being left in subfreezing temperatures for up to a week.
The event may show the strength of Noble in bringing national attention to Dallas County’s party which has had a recent history of financial problems. Swalwell’s office would not comment on the current allegations or his work supporting local Democrats across the country.
In 2019 Swalwell was a candidate for President.
Rep Swalwell with Dallas County Democratic Party Chairwoman Kristy Noble and Betsy Kleinman.
Eric Swalwell – Security Issue
In late 2020, Swalwell was accused by Axios of having ties to a Chinese spy through local fundraising efforts.
The suspected Chinese intelligence operative developed extensive ties with local and national politicians, including Congressman Swalwell. Officials in the United States believe this was a political intelligence operation run by China’s main civilian spy agency between 2011 and 2015 and resulted in a FBI briefing to Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy.
Swalwell serves on the House Special Committee on Intelligence, a position McCarthy says he should be removed from given current allegations.
On Saturday, Barry Wernick lost his race for Dallas City Council District 11 to Jaynie Schultz. On Sunday, he acted as if his campaign hadn’t played dirtythroughout the race.
Wernick claims in his Facebook post above that “we have it a good fight without resorting to name calling or personal attacks.” This statement is completely contradicted by his campaign team who admittred in a secret recording to creating fake Facebook posts to create a negative public safety image of the ultimate winner in the race, Jaynie Schultz.
Barry Wernick Results
Despite leading in the May 1 race results, Wernick lost the runoff of June 5 by eight points. Several voters stated the false negative campaigning was their major reason for voting Schultz over Wernick.
Wernick was supported by several Park Cities Republican Women Club members. We are reaching out for their comment about the race results both in District 11 and in other parts of the city they were involved.
Rumors from 1500 Marilla is Fair Park redistricting may place the area into City Council District 02 after the runoff election is concluded.
Fair Park Redistricting
It is unclear how accurate reports are, but two sources have now confirmed that City of Dallas staff is looking at how to gerrymander Fair Park into D02. The same sources pushed back on the campaign narrative that Eric Johnson would be successful with his campaign endorsements.
If this redistricting plan comes true it would place the area under the leadership of Jesse Moreno instead of Adam Bazaldua.
One person close to the process said on background “Jesse is a real community leader – a work horse. Adam is too much show horse.”
They went on to describe the need of a person better versed with the Fair Park Master Plan than Adam Bazaldua who has been “too busy” planning a mayoral run in two years against Eric Johnson, who he has battled with since his election.
