Why This West Houston District Will Turn Blue In November-- Meet Dr. Jason Westin

The west Houston congressional district (TX-07) is one of the most likely in the Lone Star State to flip from red to blue. The district, which stretches from West University Place and Belaire up through Spring Valley, Hunters Crook and Bunker Hill villages and west to Barker Reservoir and up to the Houston National Gold Club, Satsuma and Jersey Village. Traditionally red-- with a PVI of R+7-- Hillary beat Trump 48.5% to 47.1%. The DCCC has never looked at it as a winnable seat, but this cycle hapless Republican incumbent, rubber stamp John Culberson, has attracted 7 Democratic opponents, including 4 who have already raised 6-fured war chests. Blue America has endorsed award-winning cancer researcher and doctor, Jason Westin. And when I saw the new video (above) I was extremely happy that this is how so many of the Democratic and independent voters in the district will be introduced two him. This is a powerful clip. If you like it, please consider giving Jason a hand by clicking on the ActBlue thermometer on the right. I asked Jason to explain the clip in his own words:

Giving someone a diagnosis is never easy. Telling them they have cancer is hard. You know their lives will be forever changed, that nothing will ever be the same.

As a cancer doctor and award winning researcher, I know about cancer. It’s what has motivated my career up to this point, and it’s motivating my next challenge.

I’m sorry to tell you: I have bad news. We have a cancer in our country. I think we’ve all seen this diagnosis coming as our politics have broken down, but it’s time to face the facts.

There is a cancer eating away at America: ignorance, a willful ignorance. It’s affecting our politics and it can no longer be ignored. It’s a deliberate attack on science, on reason, and on facts. We have to call it out, and make a plan to fight back right away before it’s too late.

This ignorance isn’t completely new-- in fact, it’s been around for years. But it used to be on the fringes. The odd opinion from an otherwise reasonable politician, or a rant from someone who could easily be identified as a being a few cards shy of a full deck.

But now-- this ignorance is front and center. From the halls of Congress to the Oval Office, facts and science are under a direct attack. It used to be that we respected experts, that we respected scientists, that we respected facts.

But not anymore. Now, whenever a fact doesn’t fit a political agenda-- it’s “Fake News.” It’s a forbidden word-- like “evidence-based” or “science-based.” Or far too often it’s viewed as a partisan talking point.

Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan famously said that “everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not his own facts.” Someone should tell this to Mr. Trump and his team, like when Kellyanne Conway said “we feel compelled to go out and clear the air and put alternative facts out there.” Fighting back against this nonsense, Chuck Todd told Ms. Conway that “alternative facts aren't facts, they are falsehoods." Falsehoods, untruths, misrepresentations, fibs, or as well like to call them, flat out lies-- whatever you want to call them, they are dangerous and we must be clear: our society must not tolerate this willful ignorance.

From climate change, to evolution, to vaccines, even to the size of the crowd at the inauguration-- this administration, and its enablers and rubber stamps in Congress, has shown a deliberate pattern of attacking facts, attacking reason, and attacking science.

We could almost ignore it if the consequences weren’t so severe. If the people denying the existence of climate change were the local loudmouth contrarian, we’d just say “let’s agree to disagree” and we’d move on. But when the President of the United States, or the head of the EPA, or the Speaker of the House deny obvious and provable facts-- the implications are enormous and have real and lasting impact.

When the United States withdrew from the Paris Climate Accord, as the only major nation in the world to do so, we allow others to be the leaders to recruit the best and brightest for a new generation. We stood alone for ignorance. When we specifically prohibit any research on ways we could reduce the number of Americans killed each year by guns, we essentially give up-- we say that we are OK with 30,000 American not coming home to their families. When candidate Trump claimed that vaccines cause autism, despite overwhelming evidence that they don’t, he told busy and nervous parents that it’s ok to skip those shots their kids hate, and preventable disease and death will inevitably follow.

It doesn’t have to be this way. The first step of treating a problem is a proper diagnosis, but after we’ve made a diagnosis, the next step is to develop the best possible treatment plan. My plan: fight back, hard.

We can do better. Because the history of America is the history of scientific achievement. From Ben Franklin and the kite, to Thomas Edison, to Amelia Earhart, to George Washington Carver, to the Manhattan Project, to the Apollo Mission, to Microsoft and Apple and Google and Facebook and Tesla, America is the global leader, and it’s not even close. As President Kennedy said “We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard.” Amen.

As a cancer doctor, I know first-hand that we’ve made incredible progress-- that there are 15.5 million cancer survivors alive in the United States today. I’ve seen my patients who were on their way to the grave be cured with the latest breakthroughs. We’ve achieved this with science, with facts, with a drive to do better. We know that the making of a more perfect union is the triumph of reason over ignorance, of light over darkness.

I believe in science, I believe in facts, and I believe the impossible is possible because I’ve seen it, day in and day out in more work.

For us to succeed, to continue our march towards progress, we must elect more leaders who understand the power of science, who respect essential nature of facts, and who will govern based upon logic and reason, based upon facts-- not partisan fictions.

We know there’s a way, now we just need the will.

To succeed, we need your help. Watch our video, tell your friends, support us any way you can, and keep fighting. Together, we will win.

-by Jason Westin
Candidate, TX-07