The La Quinta Tour-- A Guest Post By Texas Gubernatorial Candidate Tom Wakely

-by Tom Wakely

On July 22nd I announced I was planning on running as an Economic Populist for Governor of Texas. On August 4th I set out on a 60 day tour of my state not only to introduce myself but to gain a better understanding of why people are not voting. You see, Texas is neither a red state nor a blue state; it is a no-vote state. When over 60% of registered voters aren’t voting, there has to be a reason and I wanted to find what that reason was. So to find exactly why people in my state aren’t voting and what would motivate them to get out an vote, I decided that the best place to start was to visit them where they work and play.

My first step was to map out a travel schedule and since I planned to drive the state I selected La Quinta Inn and Suites, a chain of low-cost limited service hotels, as the place where I would hang my hat each night. My travels would take me from south Texas to north Texas. From central Texas to east Texas and all points in between. I calculated I would put little over 3,500 miles on my vehicle in August, staying on the road for 20 nights. I estimated the travel costs at $1,500. I called a friend up in Austin and he funded my first month on the road.

Over that first month on the road, I talked to dozens of Texans each morning in the La Quinta hotel’s dining room where a free breakfast was served. I didn’t tell anyone I was running for Governor because I wanted to find out what they thought about politics in general and Texas politics specifically. I also wanted to find out if they voted or not. I think it is safe to say that the vast majority of folks I spoke to were registered voters but didn’t vote. When I asked them why they didn’t vote, the response was basically the same in town after town "why should I vote; my life wasn’t going to change." I also took the time that first month on the road to talk to the staff at each of the hotels I stayed at. No one I spoke to earned over $10 an hour and without exception, not a one of them told me they voted. When I asked them why, they told me basically the same thing the hotel guests told me, "why should I vote; my life wasn’t going to change." By the end of my first month on the road I estimate I talked to around 600 people; about 100 hotel employees and 500 guests.

My second month on the road took me back to the Texas/Mexico border towns I had already visited but also to many places I hadn’t been to since I was a child, cities like Amarillo, Lubbock and Abilene in the Texas panhandle. I also visited places I had never been to-- tiny communities like Goliad (pop. 1,900) and Garfield (1,700). Once again, I stayed in La Quinta hotels in or near the town I was planning to visit. I also added another venue to my tour-- Washaterias (for you Yankees, a laundromat). This time around, I told everyone I met that I was running for Governor on a platform of addressing income inequality in Texas. I told the folks at the hotel breakfast, the housekeeping staff, and the dozens of women I met in the washaterias that I was advocating for a $15 minimum wage and without exception, everyone I spoke to said "YES!" The only thing the women in the washaterias added to the conversation was "healthcare."

Now, like I said before, Texas is neither a red state nor a blue state; it is a no-vote state. The last time a Democrat was elected Governor of Texas was in 1991 when Ann Richards was elected. She served until she was beaten in the 1994 November general election by George Bush. That year a little over 50% of registered voters voted. Bush took a little over 53% of those voting and Richards took about 45%. But as a percentage of total registered voters in Texas, Bush took about 25% and Richards about 20%. It’s been downhill ever since for the Texas Democrat Party.

In 1998, Bush beat Gary Mauro to win a 2nd term as Governor. That year only 32% of registered voters voted. As a percentage of total registered voters, Bush took about 22% and Mauro received less than 10%. In 2002, Republican Rick Perry beat millionaire Democrat Tony Sanchez. That year, about 36% of registered voters voted. As a percentage of total registered voters, Perry took about 24% and Sanchez received about 12% of the vote. In 2006, Perry won a second term, beating Congressman Chris Bell. That year, about 33% of registered voters voted. As a percentage of total registered voters, Perry took about 13% and Bell received about 10% of the vote. The remaining votes were split between two Independent candidates, Carole Keeton Strayhorn and singer/songwriter Kinky Friedman. In 2010, Rick Perry won a third term, beating former Houston mayor, Bill White. That year, about 38% of registered voters voted. As a percentage of total registered voters, Perry took roughly 20% and White received about 16% of the vote. In 2014, Greg Abbott was elected Governor of Texas beating State Senator Wendy Davis. That year, about 33% of registered voters voted. As a percentage of total registered voters, Abbott took roughly 19% and Davis received about 13% of the vote.

Since 1998, on average, only about a 1/3 of registered voters in Texas are voting. Republicans have been winning with a little under 20% of registered voters voting for the party. Democrats have been losing with a little over 13% registered voters voting for them. Another way to put it, on average 80% of the state’s registered voters are either voting against the Republican candidate or not supporting the candidate but the Republicans are still winning; why? Because 87% of the state’s registered voters are either voting against the Democratic candidate for Governor or not supporting the candidate by not voting-- 87%-- that is amazing. It should also be noted that all of the Republican and Democratic candidates for Governor since 1998 have been wealthy lawyers with ties to the oil and gas industry, some with very deep ties. So, it seems that Republicans don’t mind voting for wealthy lawyers with ties to the fossil fuel industry while Democratic voters in Texas don’t like wealthy lawyers with ties to the oil and gas industry and don’t vote for them.

Does anyone see a pattern to the above?

So, this is where we are today. A cabal of three ultra-conservative white men came to power in 2014, in a political coup orchestrated by the Koch brothers among others. Texas has turned from a business conservative red state to a far-right inferno that makes Dante’s nine circles of Hell look like a walk through the park. Gregg Abbott, a neo-fascist is Governor. He has built what is effectively a police state in Texas. Dan Patrick, a conservative radio talk show host is Lt. Governor. A white supremacist, Patrick is the leader of the movement that effectively made being brown a crime in Texas. And finally, there’s Ken Paxton, our Attorney General. A champion of the Tea Party movement, Paxton is currently under indictment on felony charges for securities fraud.

I think it’s fair to say that since taking office Gov. Abbott, who has amassed a re-election war chest of over $41 million, has demonized pretty much everyone in Texas except for his base: white, conservative, evangelical Christians. He has painted a bull’s-eye on the backs of labor, women, refugees and immigrants, Hispanics and other minorities, the LBGTQ community, the poor in my state. His fervent support of Senate Bill 4 also known as the "show me your papers law" and which went into effect on Sept. 1st, effectively bans local law enforcement agencies from adopting patterns or practices that limit cooperation with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Sheriffs, police chiefs, and jail administrators face Class A misdemeanor charges and fines up to $25,500 if they violate the law by instructing officers not to inquire about a person’s immigration status or fail to comply with so-called detainer requests to transfer jailed immigrants to ICE custody. Just before voting on SB4, hard-line conservatives’ in the Texas legislature, led by Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, amended its "show me your papers" provision to let police inquire not just about the immigration status of anyone they arrest but also to ask anyone who is being questioned if they are a U.S. citizen. What SB4 effectively does, like I said, is make being brown a crime in Texas. Add to all of this is Abbott’s love of guns. Under his leadership it is now legal in my state to open-carry every conceivable type of weapon from a sword to an AR-15 semi-automatic rifle. Just recently a small heavily armed group of white men dressed in green battle fatigues surrounded the San Antonio city hall to protest the council’s decision to remove a confederate statue from a downtown park. The police could do nothing; the protesters were lawfully carrying.

Given all of the above, why in hell would I want to run for Governor? The answer is simple-- because I have to. When I was in seminary I came to know a man named Martin Niemöller. He was a Lutheran minister who became an outspoken public foe of Adolf Hitler. Niemöller spent the last seven years of Nazi rule in concentration camps; imprisoned first in Sachsenhausen and then at Dacha. This anti-Nazi theologian summed up perfectly how I feel about Greg Abbott, Dan Patrick, Ken Paxton and their tea-party brethren who have taken over the Great State of Texas. He said, "First they went after the Communists, and I did not stand up, because I was not a Communist. Then they went after the homosexual and infirm, and I did not stand up, because I was neither. Then they went after the Jews, and I did not stand up, because I was not a Jew. Then they went after the Catholics, and I did not stand up, because I was Protestant. Finally, they went after me, and there was no one left to stand up for me."

Our campaign for Governor will focus on 4 main issues. 1- Income inequality. I will fight for a raise in the state minimum wage to $15 an hour along with repealing Texas’s right-to-work laws. I also want to scrap the Texas business franchise tax system in favor of a Business Income Tax. It’s way past time for Texas’ largest corporations like IBM, Wal-Mart, ATT, Toyota, Dell Computer and Exxon, to start paying their fair share of taxes. 2- Healthcare. Texans need access to healthcare not access to health insurance. I will fight for the establishment of a statewide network of health clinics and hospitals similar in nature to the VA healthcare system that I am a part of. If you have health insurance through your employer and our happy with it-- keep it. If you have health insurance through the ACA and our happy with it-- keep it. For everyone else, the statewide network of health clinics and hospitals that I propose will be there for you. 3- Gun Violence Prevention programs. I will fight to ban the sale and possession of military-style weapons like the AK-47 and AR-15 in Texas. I will fight to repeal our state’s open-carry laws. I also support limiting the number of handguns and long guns that a person can lawfully own. In addition, we should require background checks at gun shows.  4- Global Warming. Through policies and practices like instituting a carbon fee on the burning of carbon-based fuels (coal, oil, gas), the carbon fee is at the core of my policy to reduce and eventually eliminat the use of fossil fuels whose combustion is destabilizing and destroying our climate. I will fight to ban fracking and flaring in Texas. I will work to see that scrubbers are installed on all cement factory smokehouses. These are all meaningful steps to mitigating the harmful effects of global warming.

On October 14th, I officially launch my campaign for Governor from a ranch in Blanco County (pop. 11,000). Though I will be running as a Democrat, our campaign is rooted in the Texas People’s Party which was founded in the 1890’s. The People’s party, which evolved from the Grange, the Greenback party, and the Farmer’s Alliance, became the most successful of the third-party movements in state history. Like the economic populist of old, who recruited from small farmers, sheep ranchers, laborers, and blacks our campaign will reach out to the 62% of non-voters in my state with a very simply message. To paraphrase Senator Bernie Sanders, we live in one of the richest state’s in the nation, the Texas economy is the 12th largest in the world but that reality means little because much of that wealth is controlled by a tiny handful of Texans. To quote him, “The issue of wealth and income inequality is the great moral issue of our time, it is the great economic issue of our time, and it is the great political issue of our time.”