Sunday, August 20, 2017

Blue America's Newest Endorsed Candidate-- Derrick Crowe (TX-21)

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Blue America has been busily vetting new congressional candidates since spring. Sometimes it takes a while since we don't base our endorsements on questionnaires but, rather, on "getting to know" the candidates and what they stand for and what their capabilities are. We've certainly gotten to know Derrick Crowe, our newest endorsee-- a progressive Texas Democrat who is running a campaign based on what he wants to do to represent the interests of TX-21 working families in Congress. The district stretches from Fort Sam Houston, Alamo Heights, Oleos Park, Castle Hills and the South Texas Medical Center north of San Antonio up through a corridor past New Braunfels, San Marcos and Buda into Clarksville and Downtown Austin almost to UT and then west into the Hill Country past Fredericksburg, Bandera and Kerrville. It was drawn to minimize the solidly blue Travis County vote but last year Trump underperformed past GOP nominees and barely won a majority (52.5%).




And Derrick is up against one of Congress' worst-- Lamar Smith, a decrepit Science denier who Paul Ryan put in charge of the House Science Committee where he has labored to undermine every effort to combat Climate Change. Derrick reminded us that he was also "Trump’s first donor in Congress, and thanks to him and his fossil fuel backers, every year my son has been alive has been the hottest year on Earth. I will not stand by while he ruins my son’s future. Mr. Smith has contributed to and lived off of this ugly, rigged system for three decades while the rest of us paid the price. Well, I’ve got news for him: we’re done paying."

Derrick has a very different vision of Climate Change than Smith, Trump and EPA administrator Scott Pruitt do. "A free, prosperous, just future depends on a stable environment. Climate change is already triggering severe impacts, as the recent draft climate report put it, 'from the top of the atmosphere to the bottom of the sea.' Folks in my district have already suffered through one of the clearest examples of a climate-change-driven disaster in the floods of 2015. More is on the way. We must act now to get carbon emissions down by electrifying our energy use, switching to renewables, and ratcheting up efficiency standards. If we do that rapidly, we have a chance to save the future."

My first experience with Derrick goes back to when George W. Bush was still president and he was the organizing force behind Brave New Film's "Rethink Afghanistan" project. He has a visceral understanding of progressive issues and appears to be someone who will be more than just a "good vote" in Congress, but someone-- like Pramila Jayapal, Ted Lieu and Ro Khanna can come forward as a natural thought leader. He's certainly running his campaign that way. "We are organizing around the solid, time-tested values of 'Liberty and Justice. For All.' Those principles are the heart of our democracy, and I’m tired of watching corporate-backed career politicians like Smith drag them through the mud," he explained to me yesterday. "Liberty means that your choices matter. It means that monopolies and corporate bosses can’t kill your small business dreams and pick your politicians for you. Justice means that trillions in financial fraud will send you to jail, a gram of marijuana doesn’t ruin your life, and that when you put in a full day’s work, you get paid a living wage. Liberty and justice for all means we respect every person and relationship, and we don’t target people for deportation or incarceration or harassment based on the color of their skin, their gender identity, or their sexual orientation."

Goal ThermometerHis perspective on the battle over healthcare is just what we're looking for at Blue America as well: "Health care," he told us, "should be a right in this country, not a privilege. Unfortunately, the bills the GOP has put on the table over the past several months would let us get sick, go bankrupt, and die early just so they and their rich friends can have tax cuts. That’s a stark vision. We have to answer that with an equally powerful vision: an America where everyone gets the care they need, achieved through Medicare For All." Please help us welcome Derrick to the Blue America ActBlue page by clicking on the thermometer on the right and contributing what you can to his campaign. Taking back Congress means making inroads in districts like Texas' 21st, despite the gerrymandering. With an extraordinary candidate like Derrick it's a winnable seat, especially as more and more independent voters and even mainstream Republicans continue to sour on Trump and his enablers, like Lamar Smith, in Congress.



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5 Comments:

At 5:33 PM, Anonymous Thomas Wakey said...

I was the Blue America endorsed candidate in 2016 who ran against Smith. We little money we still managed to drop Smith's percentage of the vote to 56.9%, his lowest ever. Smith is vunerable.

 
At 6:12 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Tom, you still lost by 12 points.

In MOST TX R districts, the absolute best outcome is a bare double-digit loss unless the R dies or pulls out his schlong and starts stroking in public or something.

If Bernie had not been defrauded of the nom, he might have only lost TX by 5 points. But that would have been the combo of the very best possible D vs. the very worst possible R.

 
At 8:36 AM, Blogger Unknown said...

Anonymous: So far, all I've seen from you are attacks on the Democrats using language that, frankly, is starting so sound very scripted, as it simply repeats the same complaints over and over but never offers anything remotely resembling a viable alternative. Now, I see you basically telling committed candidates like Derrick and Tom they shouldn't waste their time running because "Texas." Whatever that means.

So, I ask in all honesty—Who is paying you to follow DWT and constantly discourage people from (a) running for office as progressives under the label if not the auspices of the Democratic Party and (b) repeat the message that progressives can never win and that anyone who votes Democrat is an idiot? Because your postings are the classical definition of propaganda, and given you don't have the courage to post under your own name, you might understand why I find your entire presence somewhat suspicious.

 
At 8:37 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

If you find my presence suspicious, it is because you are prone to fantastical conspiracy theories.
I'm not paid. I'm just livid at how bad things have gotten, UNNECESSARILY, since the '80s when the corruption started. Voters should have put an end to it in the '80s but didn't. And here we all are today.

If you want an alternative that will work TODAY, there isn't one. Certainly staying with the thoroughly corrupt and getting ever corrupter democraps isn't going to work. All they will bring us is more purposeful ineptitude and further migration rightward to please the money that owns them.

If you want something that will work SOME day, start now by repudiating democraps and their corporate blood money and put out the BA slate as a separate, distinct collection... a new party. Let Howie et al start plowing the fields and sowing the seeds so that in 4-8-12 years all the lefty voters who are D-voting automatons plus, hopefully, a good portion of the dormant left can collude to push the corporate snd billionaire government out and bring in a government of/by/for PEOPLE.

As with climate and energy and everything, we all must act as individuals or we'll never be able to act as one. Start by repudiating democraps. Implore the good BA people to eschew the democrap party and take a run at it as a true leftist free from the democrap stench. See if voters respond. Not right away, but maybe in a couple of cycles.

It's clear by now that Howie and DWT will not act without the voters and/or the candidates making a purposeful statement. Derrick, take a swing at it as an 'I'. Let thoughtful TX voters (there ARE some, right???) have a real choice regardless of what the democraps do. Voters who reflexively vote D, please consider alternative candidates or write in someone. Starve Pelosi and scummer of votes.
MAKE DWT choose the alternative.

 
At 8:45 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Addendum to the above: DWT, if you do this, and you SHOULD, you can put one in office this cycle if you throw all your support behind 'ironstache'. It looks like WI might just be sick enough of ryan's tired and destructive act. Let the democraps puke up some piece of shit as they take a dive again. Let your guy stand as an Independent (or come up with a catchy name for the BA people) and see if WI voters have any redeeming human value.

I don't really see another winnable race for any of your people THIS CYCLE, good as they are. But you should still start with a snowball and see if you end up with an avalanche or not.

If you insist on staying with the Ds, you're truly wasting your efforts. You yourself write about that often.

 

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