Dallas County Democrats have numerous contested races including at the top of the ballot where they are expected to nominate Beto O’Rourke. This is the Democrat sample ballot.
Dallas County Republicans mostly have contested races at the top of the ticket including Don Huffines challenging Greg Abbott for the gubernatorial nod and who will face Colin Allred in TX32.
Polls are out pre-primary and it shows more trouble for Dallas Democrats 2022 edition.
The Dallas Morning News/UT Tyler poll shows Greg Abbott beating presumed Democratic nominee Beto O’Rourke by eleven points. O’Rourke still must win his primary, but Betocrats came out hard against whispers Matthew McConaughey might enter the race.
At the time, polls showed McConaughey beating Abbott – the only potential candidate to do so in any poll.
Currently, O’Rourke is well ahead of his other four primary opponents, but it is unclear what he does next if he loses again.
Lt. Governor candidate Mike Collier leads 21 points to 18 for state representative Michelle Beckley and Democratic Party Vice Chair Carla Brailey at 15 percentage points.
The big surprise may be progressive Latina Rochelle Mercedes Garza who is leading Joe Jaworski and the field of five candidates for Attorney General. She currently has 22 percentage points, nearly doubling presumed front runner Jaworski’s 13 points.
In that race, Lee Merritt and Mike Fields each come in with 9 points.
Dallas Democrats continue to shoot themselves in foot.
Locally, the party is still recovering from losses in 2020 that lost the chance at Texas House of Representatives membership parity. At the time insiders said a circular firing squad started.
It was also revealed that in a Dallas County Democratic Party audit that there were almost no operational or financial controls over money flowing into and out of the party. This all happened as Democrats included convicted felon Terry Hodge as a member of their Electoral College slate.
Trouble For Dallas Democrats 2022 Despite Self Inflicted GOP Wounds
The good news for Dallas Democrats mostly comes from a Republican Party that seems focused on nominating local QAnon supporters as standard bearers for their campaigns.
The other difficulty the GOP appears to be having will come in the 32nd Congressional District if they choose to nominate Brad Namdar who has been accused of soliciting an escort for sex and then not paying her after a second encounter.
The Dallas Morning News/UT-Tyler Poll is a statewide random sample of 1,118 registered voters conducted between February 8 – 15, 2022.
The mixed-mode sample includes 276 registered voters surveyed over the phone by the University of Texas at Tyler with support from ReconMR and 912 registered voters randomly selected from Dynata’s panel of online respondents.
The margin of error for a sample of 1,118 registered voters in Texas is +/- 2.8 percentage points, and the more conservative margin of sampling error that includes design effects from this poll is +/- 3.1 percentage points for a 95% confidence interval.
Texas Governor Greg Abbott begs for federal socialist help again per a statement from his office.
The Texas governor, who has opposed COVID19 vaccine mandates and other preventive measures, said on Friday that his state had requested federal help with testing sites.
Abbott said in a press release that the state requested “resources for federally-supported testing locations and medical personnel and additional federal allocations of monoclonal antibodies.”
In June 2020, Governor Abbott blamed young people for the rise in COVID19 cases only to be diagnosed with the virus himself. He used monoclonal antibodies – a high dollar treatment option when he was diagnosed with coronavirus himself just a day after being at a fundraiser event the day before.
In October, Abbott issued a state executive order that barred Texas entities, including private business, from issuing COVID-related vaccine mandates. That came after the federal government announced a plan requiring private businesses with more than one hundred employees to require vaccinations or weekly testing.
Abbott was accused if playing politics at the time.
His statement against President Biden stated, “In yet another instance of federal government overreach, the Biden Administration is now bullying many private entities into imposing COVID19 vaccine mandates, causing workforce disruptions that threaten Texas’ continued recovery from the COVID19 disaster.”
Abbott is facing a primary challenge from both former Congressman Allen West and former Texas Senator Don Huffines.
Huffines has attacked Abbott on issues ranging from government administration to illegal immigrants, the coronavirus response, and blaming the governor for last year’s February power outages which he called “ridiculous.”
Abbott Begs Like Last Year While Denying Local Assistance
Hospitals in Dallas and throughout North Texas said they needed hundreds of additional emergency staff to deal with the surge of viral cases of coronavirus. The state denied their request for emergency personnel.
Those businesses are now feeling the crunch of employees testing positive for COVID19 in a wave of Omicron variant infections which have propelled numbers past last year’s highs.
Texas Governor Greg Abbott spreads COVID19 in McKinney, Texas at a fundraiser at Heritage Ranch on earlier this week.
Abbott attended a fundraiser for the Republican Club at Heritage Ranch and the video above clearly shows him in close contact with dozens of other unmasked attendees at the venue.
A statement from the governor’s office said that everyone Abbott was close with has been notified of possible exposure to COVID19. He is currently being treated with monoclonal antibodies at the Governor’s Mansion.
The Governor’s spokesman would not comment about Abbott’s personal responsibility. The Texas Governor has said personal responsibility should be the standard on whether or not to wear a mask.
Abbott Spreads COVID19 In Schools Too?
Abbott is fighting against mask and vaccine mandates in Texas and issued an executive order prohibiting businesses and schools from requiring masks or vaccines to enter.
On Monday, Iraan-Sheffield ISD, a district about an hour south of Midland, Texas announced it would shut down its three campuses until August 30th. Bloomburg ISD and Waskom ISD also are shutting down campuses in light of COVID19 numbers in rural Texas.
Texas is actively seeking out-of-state health care personnel to help with the latest COVID19 surge. Abbott has also asked hospitals to voluntarily postpone elective medical procedures.
One physician in a Facebook post openly spoke about triaging pediatric trauma victims because of a lack of bedspace and not being able to accept patient transfers because local pediatric facilities are being used by adults.
COVID19 Retreat
While Abbott is asking other states for assistance in fighting coronavirus his leadership at Texas Education Agency is still balking on mask requirements. Austin ISD and Dallas ISD have both announced they are moving forward with mask requiements anyway.
The new guidance from TEA comes shortly after Governor Abbott denied emergency healthcare staffing for area hospitals experiencing a four fold increase in COVID19 hospitalizations in just a month’s time.
TEA COVID19 Guidance: COVID19 Vaccines
The coronavirus vaccine is not available for children younger than twelve, but for those students twelve or older, the vaccine will not be required despite other vaccines being necessary.
After a student turns eleven, they are required to be vaccinated against meningococcal meningitis.
TEA COVID19 Guidance: Parent Information
TEA guidance also says local ISDs do not have to inform parents of positive cases at their children’s school. They are required to report that information to state and local health departments.
Schools also don’t have to contact trace, but if they choose to do so, parents can still choose to send their kid to school if they are a “close contact” of a positive coronavirus case.
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 recent K-12 CDC Mask recommendation is being ignored by Governor Greg Abbott per statements reinforcing his May Executive Order.
The CDC has recommended everyone in the K-12 setting wear a mask indoors, regardless of vaccination status. Children under 12 are not yet eligible for FDA authorized vaccinations.
When asked by a KXAN reporter about whether Texas would be allowed to enforce mask wearing his press secretary responded: “the time for government mandating of masks is over…”
The spokesperson goes on, “vaccines are the most effective defense against contracting COVID and becoming seriously ill, and we continue to urge all eligible Texans to get the vaccine. The COVID vaccine will always remain voluntary and never forced in Texas.”
K-12 CDC Mask Recommendation or Donald Trump?
It is not clear if the current course of action is due to the election calendar.
Governor Abbott is in a fierce primary contest for the Republican nomination for Governor. One of his opponents, Don Huffines, has already hit out at Abbott over the rolling blackouts and freezeout earlier in the year.
Abbott has soought the support of former President Donald Trump – despite a clear move away from Trump in many suburbs, including Dallas – over the infiltration of the Republican Party by QAnon.
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.
