So, how about them politics? Everything in politics right now seems to be horrible, with notable exception to the staggering amount of progressive wins in down ballot races, and a deluge of progressive upstarts running for office. We already have two new progressive members of congress with Christian Menefee and Analilia Mejia before any of the primaries started, when anyone to the left of Mussolini would get carpet bombed by AIPAC spending in the previous two cycles. And that’s not even talking about the historic ass fucking that Republicans and and corporate Democrats received in the 2025 General Election.

And now, we are at the first statewide primaries of the cycle, both set for March 3rd. Most of this article will be about oncoming electoral storm in Texas, but North Carolina has its own happenings first. Everyone has collectively agreed that former Governor Roy Cooper will be Democratic nominee for US Senate, and due to gerrymandering, most of the Congressional primaries are in deep red districts. There is one exception to that rule.

In North Carolina’s 4th Congressional District, we are going to see a 2022 rematch between Durham County Commissioner Nida Allam, and current incumbent Valerie Foushee. In 2022, Nida Allam was the front runner going into this race, and I was so convinced that she would win, that I didn’t include her on my 25 Most important Primaries of 2022 article… God that article aged horribly… Then AIPAC and DMFI stepped in a boosted the runner up candidate Valerie Foushee in a move that was so widely condemned, that one state legislator switched their endorsement because of it. This didn’t change the final result unfortunately.

Valerie Foushee is listed as the sixth highest recipient of funding from AIPAC and the Isreal lobby ,having received close to 3 million in funding. Foushee was also named Co-Chair of the House Democrats Commission on AI, despite the fact that she fell for and reposted an ancient Facebook privacy hoax. Her position on the board is also concerning considering that she was funded by crypto scammer and convicted felon Sam Bankman-Fried.

The plus side is, Foushee is now the one being outraiused and outspent, since Nida Allam has been backed by Justice Democrats, Leaders We Deserve, Our Revolution, the Sunrise Movement, and the PCCC. Between this surge of support, and the fact that the national environment has turned against AIPAC, there is a strong chance that this race will correct 2022’s mistake.

Nida Allam – Donation Link

As I said, the rest of the Congressional Primaries are in deep red districts, but they are still worth looking at, especially considering that we’ve already seen some long shot progressive wins in special elections. The most noteworthy is that former West Virginia State Senator Richard Ojeda is running for CD-9. Considering that Ojeda has a history of overperforming in red districts (Mfer made one of the reddest seats in the country competitive in 2018), and he’s already raised over a million, he’s def gonna win his primary at the very least.

CD-5 has Kyah Jordan Creekmore, who is endorsed by his local DSA, but who has only raised little over $5,000, and has already burned most of that. He’s running against a normal Democratic candidate who has raised over $200,000. If Creekmore wins, it’s safe to assume that the normie Democrat REALLY shit the bed.

CD-6 has Beau Blair, who has been endorsed by the NC Progressive Caucus, and by Charlotte Indivisible Founder Scott Huffman. Beau Blair has raised a little over $20,000 and has already burnt most of it, and is up against three other candidates. The front runner is High Point Mayor Cyril Anthony Jefferson, who has the backing of Nancy Pelosi’s PAC, and who has raised over $100,000. Once again, if Blair wins, it will signify that people are just tired of normie Democrats.

In CD-10, the primary consists of a bunch of nobodies, only one of whom has broken $20,000. There are two progressives we can root for. Either Ashley Bell, who has the backing of Track AIPAC, or Mir Hayim Yarfitz, who has the backing of the Winston-Salem DSA.

Richard Ojeda – Donation Link
Kyah Jordan Creekmore – Donation Link
Beau Blair – Donation Link
Ashley Bell – Donation Link
Mir Hayim Yarfitz – Donation Link

That about covers the Congressional side of things, but there are some noteworthy primaries in the State legislature. Most notably, Governor Josh Stein endorsed a challenger to State House District 108 incumbent DINO Carla Cunningham, who voted against funding for rural hospitals, against bonuses for public school teachers during the pandemic, to allow alleged squatters to be removed from private property without opportunity to contest claims, to repeal North Carolina’s Interim 2030 Carbon-Reduction Mandate, and to force sheriffs to co-operate with ICE! This is likely enough to ensure that challenger Rodney Sadler will win.

Rodney Sadler – Donation Link

There is a similar dynamic in the primary for State House District 99, where Incumbent DINO Nasif Majeed, who has voted to allow 16 and 17 year olds to be tried as adults for a wider variety of crimes, to allow alleged squatters to be removed from private property without opportunity to contest claims, to legally prevent child abuse status from including transphobic abuse, to repeal North Carolina’s Interim 2030 Carbon-Reduction Mandate, and to define biological sex based on reproductive capacity and genitalia.

His opponent, Veleria Levy, has been endorsed by the NC Sunrise Movement, Planned Parenthood, Sierra Club, and the NCDP Progressive Caucus. The other candidate in this race, Tucker Neal, has recently dropped out and endorsed Levy, which is a good sign.

Veleria Levy – Donation Link

Anyway, that leaves local races, starting with the primary for Raleigh City Council At Large. There are two seats that are elected, and since this is the primary, that means four will advance to the general, which is a good sign considering there are six candidates. Our two progressives are Joshua Bradley, a former DSA endorsee who doesn’t seem to have as many endorsements this cycle, but does have the backing of the NC Green Party and Socialist Party, as well as Livable Raleigh and the Triangle Labor Council. The other progressive is Sana Siddiqui, who is endorsed by Wake County Progressive Caucus, NC College Democrats, The News and Observer, and Councilwoman Christina Jones. I could look into the other candidates, but considering I have a fuck load of races to write about with Texas, I’d rather save my energy.

Joshua Bradley – Donation Link
Sana Siddiqui – Donation Link

For Mecklenburg County Board of Commissioners At Large, we have Heather Morrow, who was arrested for supposedly blocking an ICE agent’s vehicle. I can’t find any endorsements, but six people will advance to the General so hopefully she makes it. There’s also Christy Malott, who is running for Durham District Court Judge against an incumbent who was accused of Domestic abuse… though he was acquitted… okay moving on!

Heather Morrow – Donation Link
Christy Malott – Donation link

The main event will undoubtedly come from Texas, given the contentious primary between State Rep James Talarico and Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett. I just want to preface this by pointing out how James Talarico has drawn a few comparisons to Zohran Mamdani, in that he’s a charismatic, progressive upstart that the Trump Administration has it out for. This can be seen in the fact that the FCC threatened Stephen Colbert out of airing his interview with him, which caused a massive spike of views online that greatly exceeded what the broadcast itself would have been. Now I don’t know how suppressing a video lead to it gaining an increase in views, but it probably has something to do with this picture of Barbara Streisand’s cliff side residence in Malibu.

So I actually went back and looked at my coverage of both candidate’s 2022 primary, and realized, I endorsed against both of them. While my coverage of Crockett has held up remarkably well, I was surprised how negative my coverage of Talarico was, where I said the following.

In Texas’s 50th House district, we have two candidates running for the Democratic nomination in a district where Democrats make up 75% of voters. Whoever wins this will inevitably win the general election. This is yet another race where an incumbent Democrat is being primaried. From what I can gather, James Talarico is often cited as an up and coming progressive in the Texas legislature, having flipped a red seat in 2018 and since having gained some notoriety after appearing on Fox News and pressuring host Pete Hegseth to admit that Trump lost the election in response to being grilled about breaking quorum.

Unfortunately, James Talarico was also one of the Democrats that returned early and re-instated quorum, which allowed a lot of the horrific legislation in the past year to be passed through the House. Once again, that’s reason enough for a primary, but let’s take a look at his donors. One particular donor has given over $6,000,000 to Republican candidates over a period of 25 years, some of which include George W Bush, Rick Perry, Greg Abbot, Dennis Bonnen, Dan Patrick, George P Bush, and John Sharp. It’s almost as if corporate Democrats and Republicans are all backed by the same special interests! Oh, and he also contributed to John Whitmire’s campaign, just to bring it full circle.

Another donor is Texas Charter Schools Now, a pro charter school PAC that gives campaign contributions to candidates (mostly Republicans) who are pro charter school expansion. I wonder if any of these special interests had something to do with James Talarico re-instating quorum?

God the fucking jump scare of seeing Pete Hegseth’s name there… Anyway, I stand by all of that, especially the quorum bit. I will say that the shit about donors can be applied to the vast majority of incumbent Democrats. Talarico did, in fact, fuck over a lot of people by re-instating the quorum though. All of this is to say that I’m not a blind worshiper of James Talarico. His similarity to Mamdani is more so in his charisma and his ability to reach a broad audience without going full blue dog.

For contrast, let’s look at the 2024 Senate nominee Colin Allred, who also briefly ran in this race. His strategy to win over disaffected voters was to throw trans people under the bus, and to backtrack on his previous opposition to Trump’s racist border wall. It’s unclear how effective this strategy was. Allred lost to Ted Cruz by almost 10 points, but he also significantly outperformed Kamala Harris, who could have also dragged him down due to her poor performance.

Compare this to how James Talarico responds to people asking him about trans athletes. What people don’t realize is that both Talarico and Allred made similar points about how the right will use trans people as a distraction from the issues that effect most Americans. The important distinction, however, is that Talarico doesn’t cede ground out of fear of alienating median voters, while Allred has to confirm that he “doesn’t want men in women’s sports.” And keep in mind, Talarico appears to be doing significantly better among median voters than Allred did. For fucks sake, Joe Rogan literally said that Talarico should run for President.

It is because of this that discussions on whether or not Talarico or Crockett are more progressive are meaningless, because one of them knows how to maintain a decent amount of progressive principals while appealing to median voters, while the other one is very popular among your resist libs, but is the worst choice for a statewide race in Texas. Crockett has gotten some comparisons to Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign. While I don’t think that applies in terms of policy, it does seem to apply in the downright toxic way that she’s conducting her campaign, having run ads to compare James Talarico to Donald Trump, and to retread the “Bernie Bro” narrative.

There have been some that pointed out Talarico’s past blunders, and have used it to claim that he’d be the next Kyrsten Sinema or John Fetterman, but even if that turns out to be true, you have to keep in mind that this is fucking TEXAS!!! Even getting a Joe Manchin style candidate elected would be a substantial improvement, and it’s highly unlikely that Talarico would be anywhere near as conservative as him. If anything, the closest comparison seems to be Ruben Gallego, but he was still an immense improvement over Sinema or any Republican.

You all have to remember, Democracy itself is at stake here, and you need more Dems to stop any new appointments, or to block any more draconian Trump bills. We need 4 Senate seats to be flipped in order to get a majority. Any sort of comparison between Talarico and Crockett’s records is kinda pointless when one of them has a significantly higher chance of winning. But that being said, if you compared their records, you’d find that they both have roughly the same faults. The difference is that Talarico can win. If you don’t believe me, look at the fact that Republican attack ads against John Cornyn paint him as aligned with Crockett.

James Talarico – Donation Link

Anyway, what isn’t talked about as much as the US Senate race, is the fact that every state Executive position is up for election. There isn’t much of a primary going on for the Gubernatorial race since we all know it’s going to be Gina Hinojosa, but it’s also a good thing since she’s running a progressive, populist campaign. In fact, both Crockett and Talarico have endorsed her for this race, so that means she’ll win the primary.

Gina Hinojosa – Donation Link

Where things get more interesting is the Lt Gubernatorial race, which also had a designated candidate that the Party put their weight behind, Vikki Goodwin. From what I’ve seen of her, she seems to be kind of a platitude machine, but I admit I haven’t done extensive research. This may be why Steelworker’s union leader Marcos Velez is gaining momentum in this primary, having received the majority of his funding from the Texas Democratic Party’s Texas Majority PAC, and endorsements from the Texas AFL-CIO Committee on Political Education, as well as a number of other organizations.

Marcos Velez – Donation Link

In the Attorney General’s race, both Joe Jaworski and Nathan Johnson seem to have the right approach. In the Comptroller race, Sarah Eckhardt seems to have the backing of establishment and progressive Dems alike so she probably has this one in the bag. The primary for General land Commissioner seems more competitive, with the better candidate being Jose Loya, who has the endorsement of Wendy Davis, and Justice Democrats Ro Khanna and Greg Casar. The races for Commissioner of Agriculture and Railroad commissioners both have strong progressives running as the sole candidates, them being Clayton Tucker and Jon Rosenthal respectively.

Joe Jaworski – Donation Link
Nathan Johnson – Donation Link
Sarah Eckhardt – Donation Link
Jose Loya – Donation Link
Clayton Tucker – Donation Link
Jon Rosenthal – Donation Link

In the races for the Texas State Board of education, progressives Thomas Ray Garcia and Michelle Palmer are the sole candidates for districts 2 and 7 respectively. While Dana Van De Walker does have a primary opponent for District 8, the fact that they don’t even have a website leads me to believe De Walker has this one in the bag.

Thomas Ray Garcia – Donation Link
Michelle Palmer – Donation Link

This brings us to the Congressional Primaries, starting with the District 33 primary. Remember how I said that Colin Allred dropped out of US Senate race this cycle? Well, this is where he moved to, his old district where he can comfortably return to to his US House career. There’s just one problem, this isn’t an open seat. Representative Julie Johnson won this seat in 2024, and doesn’t intend to give it up. So, the thing about throwing trans people and immigrants to the wolves to win a US Senate election, and then losing that election? It means there’s a significantly less reason to re-elect you to a Solid D Congressional District.

And Julie Johnson has certainly capitalized on this, having attacked Allred for his vote in favor of the anti immigrant Laken Riley act. Allred has also voted in favor of the “no bailout for sanctuary cities act,” against cutting the Pentagon budget by 10% in the middle of a pandemic, to condemn calls to divest from bloated police budgets, and voted with Republicans to prevent the closure of a disastrous Pebble mine in Alaska.

Initially, it appeared as if Allred would have this race in the bag, but then he made the hasty decision to go after James Talarico over rumors that he referred to him as a “mediocre black man” without making any attempt to verify these claims, using it to opportunistically endorse Crockett. While I don’t know how much of an impact this had on Johnson’s increasing poll numbers, or if there were other behind the scenes reasons, the fact that the Dallas Chapter of the Texas Coalition of Black Democrats endorsed Johnson, who is obviously not black, does not bode well for him.

That all being said, Julie Johnson is not the candidate I’m endorsing for this race. While she would be an improvement due to not being a transphobic, immigrant hating DINO, it’s kind of hard for her to claim she’s Anti-ICE when she traded stocks from Palantir, and is one of the most active stock traders in Congress. Julie Johnson also has the milquetoast take that ICE can be “reformed.” On top of this, Julie Johnson has taken funds from AIPAC and DMFI, though not nearly as much as Colin Allred.

For those of you that don’t want to vote for the lesser of two evils, there’s Zeeshan Hafeez. And before anyone says anything, Texas has primary runoffs in races where no one gets more than 50%, so voting for Hafeez will have no spoiler risk. While Hafeez hasn’t raised nearly as much as Allred or Johnson, he HAS been gaining traction as of late, and has racked up endorsements from former Congresswoman and Justice Democrat Marie Newman, CD-30 candidate and Justice Democrats endorsee Frederick Haynes, Track AIPAC, Progressive Victory, the Dallas County of Young Democrats, and the Progressive Democrats of America! In other words, there’s no reason not to go all out on him.

Oh, and there’s a new Justice Democrats endorsee, since I just mentioned Frederick Haynes, and he’s running for Jasmine Crockett’s seat at that. I didn’t lead with this because he pretty much has the lead and no other candidates has raised anything or secured any serious endorsements. Meanwhile, Haynes has Crockett’s endorsement, which pretty much secures his nomination.

Zeeshan Hafeez – Donation Link

Meanwhile, CD-9 Incumbent Al Green has decided to run in CD-18 due to getting fucked over by redistricting. Only one problem, he’s currently polling below progressive upstart Christian Menefee, who just won his special election to this seat last month. This is in spite of the fact that Al Green has the endorsement of twelve of his house colleagues. Anyway, this race sucks because Al Green was an alright progressive who pushed for Trump to be impeached during the period of last year where everyone was still capitulating and cowering to him, and was one of only 9 members of Congress to vote against a resolution supporting Israel Following October 7th 2023. Can’t we just swap out Henry Cuellar or Vicente Gonzales instead?

Oh, and if you thought we were done with the Talarico Vs Crockett shit, then there’s a proxy war going on on in Texas CD-15, where each of the two candidates are endorsed by one of them. Needless to say, the Talarico endorsed candidate, Bobby Pulido, is winning by a large margin, though it may be because he’s a well known singer and has high name recognition. Anyway, I’m not sure what to make of this one, because policy wise, I’m much more in line with progressive Ada Cuellar, who is endorsed by Crockett. God, being a progressive with THAT last name must be a cruel joke!

This district is only slightly more conservative than Texas as a whole, yet the predicament does come down to the fact that Cuellar is more progressive than Jasmine Crockett, and Pulido is more conservative than Talarico, though more in a Mary Peltola vibe than a Joe Manchin way. Apparently there’s controversy because Pulido says he’s personally not in favor of abortion but believes it should be legal and a woman should have the right to choose. Like, that just seems like the typical view in these types of districts. Anyway, I guess I’d begrudgingly go with Pulido cause he can win.

While we’re going with the subject of “progressive Vs moderate,” there’s CD-9, where former Senate candidate Terry Virts dropped out and is running for this seat instead. Only he’s behind in the polls to some no name progressive named Leticia Guitierrez, who hasn’t even raised over $20,000. At this rate, you may as well go with Guitierrez, because if you spent close to $600,000 only to end up at 5%, then you can’t do shit.

Leticia Guitierrez – Donation Link

Back to blue district primaries for a second. This one has gone under the radar, but it’s worth mentioning that Vicente Gonzales has a primary challenger! Granted, Etienne Rosas has only raised little over $30,000, but Gonzales has always been vulnerable to a primary challenge, having only managed 64.8% in 2022 against a bunch of no name challengers. Rosas also recently secured the endorsement of the Rio Grande DSA, so Texas CD-34 certainly has the potential for a surprise victory, but I wouldn’t get my hopes up too much.

Etienne Rosas – Donation Link

In Texas CD-21, it looks like Kristin Hook is a progressive that’s running a genuinely serious campaign, and she’s pretty much set for the nomination. CD-38 has Marvallete Hunter, who actually broke six figures and has a bunch of endorsements, so she may actually run a remotely competitive campaign, and could even have a shot if that oncoming blue tsunami carries her over. Similarly, CD-24 has Kevin Beryl Burge, who has is running in what is a potentially competitive primary in what is one of the least red Republican held districts in the state (though it’s still R+8). In CD-23, Gretel Marysdatter Enck is running in a primary against two other people. One of them has significantly outraised her but spent nothing, and the other one has no financial data but all the endorsements.

Kristin Hook – Donation Link
Marvallete Hunter – Donation Link
Kevin Beryl Burge – Donation Link
Gretel Marysdatter Enck – Donation Link

In CD-27, Tanya Lloyd is the only candidate to have any FEC data available, and she raised over $100,000, but already spent most of it. And in Texas CD-31, Justin Early is is running in a primary against someone who has outspent him by twice as much but basically has nothing left in the bank. In CD-11, Claire Reynolds seems to have the primary in the bag, but is running in an R+17 district, and in CD-8, Laura Jones might win the primary, but is in a R+13 district. Oh, and there’s Kyle Rable in CD-19 who has the nomination secure but has no chance in the general.

Tanya Lloyd – Donation Link
Justin Early – Donation Link
Claire Reynolds – Donation Link
Laura Jones – Donation Link
Kyle Rable – Donation Link

Okay, that’s just the US House. You know they got a candidate to run for every seat this year? That is very good for them, but bad for me because it means this piece is going to be very fucking long! Next up we have the state house, how many progressive challengers do we have…. JESUS FUCKING CHRIST, 19 of them??? Okay, I’ll skip the ones who are running unopposed in their primaries, which brings us to 12, which is still a lot. Oh, and they’re all in the State House because the Texas State Senate is terminally gerrymandered. Anyway, ten of these races are in blue districts, which is good for a healthy Democratic party but bad for me.

State House District 120 where incumbent Barbara Gervin-Hawkins, who has voted to ban children from social media, which prevents victims of child abuse from finding online support, and to ban cell phones from school campuses, which means abuse victims can’t film their abuse. Furthermore, Barbara Gervin-Hawkins has stated her opposition to the creation of a new ICE detention center in San Antonio, yet she’s actively working with San Antonio Mayor Ron Nirenberg to create a billion dollar jail, which Bexar County Judge Peter Sakai has referred to as a “budget disaster.”

Gervin-Hawkins has two primary challengers. One of them is Jordan Brown, a special ed teacher who has the endorsements of Run for Something, Texas AFL CIO, and San Antonio City Councilor Jalen McKee-Rodriguez! The other candidate is self described Democratic socialist Bently Paiz, who has less endorsements but is running a more left wing campaign. Either one of them will be an improvement over the incumbent.

Jordan Brown – Donation Link
Bently Paiz – Donation Link

For one of the most important races, we have State House District 142. It’s incumbent, Harold Dutton, is most likely the worst Democrat in the Texas state legislature, and is the third longest serving member of the Texas state house, having served since 1985. Before I even go into his voting record, I need to point out that this prick refused to pay child support payments to his wife so often that his wife tried to have him sent to prison over it. He sadly was not sent to prison, but he was ordered to pay $16,000, as well as $8,000 for her attorney fees.

Dutton’s record consists of him aiding the right wing push to take over Houston schools, being the first Democrat to choosing to revive an anti trans sports bill pushed by Republicans because an unrelated bill of his got killed, and refusing to vote to impeach Ken Paxton. His voting record consists of voting to approve corporal punishment in public schools, to prohibit state contracts with companies that boycott Israel, to ban straight ticket voting, to ban personal communications devices from being used in schools, to ban minors from social media, to require anti communist lessons in schools, and to require the 10 commandments to be displayed in schools.

More recently, Dutton had a complete meltdown when the Texas Gulf Coast Area Labor Federation decided to endorse one of his primary opponents, him stating in a voicemail “Since you all don’t respect me enough to say, ‘Well, wait a minute. We need to take a look at all of what Representative Dutton does,’ you know, to hell with you all…'”

Anyway, the candidate they endorsed was Danyahel Norris, who is also who I will be endorsing here… it probably won’t be as important as the union’s. That being said, Texas has runoffs, so a vote for James Joseph will still be a vote against Dutton.

Danyahel Norris – Donation Link

In State House District 144, Incumbent Mary Ann Perez has voted to ban minors from social media, to ban personal communications devices from being used in schools, to establish Texas as a sanctuary state for oil and gas companies, to require anti communist lessons in schools, and to authorize health care practitioners to use AI for diagnostic purposes and to require all medical records to include birth sex. She is being challenged by Pasadena City Council member Emmanuel Guerrero, who has the endorsement of Run for Something and the Houston Progressive Caucus.

Emmanuel Guerrero – Donation Link

In State House District 101, incumbent Chris Turner has voted to ban minors from social media, to ban personal communications devices from being used in schools, and to require anti communist lessons in schools. His opponent Junior Ezeonu, is endorsed by Run for Something, Texas Young Democrats, and Sunrise Movement Tarrant.

Junior Ezeonu – Donation Link

In State House District 49, there’s a crowded field with three candidates that can be considered progressive. There preferred one is Gigs Hodges, a self proclaimed Democratic socialist who is endorsed by the Lone Star Left and Sunrise Movement ATX. The other two are the front runner Montserrat Garibay, who has by far the most endorsements including the Texas WFP and the Texas Progressive Caucus, and Josh Reyna, who is backed by Run for Something.

Gigs Hodges – Donation Link

Anyway, in Texas State House District 50, Jeremy Hendricks has the endorsement of pretty much everyone and is a shoe in to take James Talarico’s seat. In HD-41, Julio Salinas is running with the endorsement of David Hogg’s PAC Leaders We Deserve, as well as Run for Something. In HD-131, Staci Childs has the endorsement of Run for Something and the Houston Progressive Caucus. In HD-47, Pooja Sethi has the endorsements of Greg Casar, James Talarico, and Mike Siegel. In HD-125, Adrian Reyna is endorsed by the Texas Progressive Caucus and Run for Something. State House Districts 28 and 130 are both red district with progressive challengers running in primaries, those being Kristyna Loundy and Brett Robinson respectively.

Jeremy Hendricks – Donation Link
Julio Salinas – Donation Link
Staci Childs – Donation Link
Pooja Sethi – Donation Link
Adrian Reyna – Donation Link
Kristyna Loundy – Donation Link
Brett Robinson – Donation Link

And we are close to 5K words and I’m still not done, there’s still local elections, most of them pertaining to the Texas courts. The first two that aren’t are for Harris and Bexar County district clerk.

Our progressive of choice for Harris County is Pernell Davis, who been endorsed by Run for Something, the Texas Progressive Caucus, and the Harris county young Democrats. The only poll thus far pretty much has a dead heat between all candidates, with Davis tied for 2nd place at 3%. 82% was undecided though, so who knows if it says anything about the final result. One thing is for certain, this race is definitely going to have a runoff.

Pernell Davis – Donation Link

The Bexar County Clerk race is… a lot uglier. The progressive candidate of choice in this one is Mari Sanchez Belew, who is running against two term incumbent Lucy Adame-Clark, and Cynthia Castro, the wife of state District Judge Frank Castro. While I do support Sanchez Belew for her progressive policy, I will personally add that I believe the conduct of the other two candidates is disqualifying for any serious office.

Lucy Adame-Clark made a extremely petty and borderline bigoted remark towards Sanchez Belew, criticizing her for a minor difference between her legal name and the name on the ballot, accusing her of being being “all tatted up” and “hiding” it under her clothing, because that’s clearly relevant to the position. As a trans woman, bitching about someone not using their legal name does not sit right with me either.

As for Cynthia Castro, she would send out a mailer accusing Lucy Adame-Clark of having a “personal relationship with (an) indicted CHILD ABUSER.” The friend, Katrina Sizenbach, is alleged to have hit a 14 year old girl on the back of the neck, and on the forearm with a large, metal object, in addition to having kicked her in the shins, and is currently facing three felony charges of injury to a child with the intent to cause serious bodily injury. This bit of news would come out because Sizenbach’s case was set to be tried in Frank Castro’s court, though it was later transferred out.

It goes without saying that having a friend who has assisted you through many election cycles, including your current one, getting charged for causing serious bodily harm to a 14 year old girl is typically considered a campaign ending scandal if you’re not the President, there is also something slimy about the way that Castro revealed this information. Namely, the fact that they went about referring to it as a “personal relationship” comes across as if it’s an attempt to imply that a romantic or sexual relationship between Adame-Clark and Sizenbach, complete with an air of homophobia involved considering they are both women.

I must ask, was this really necessary? It would have still been devastating if the mailer read “close friend and campaign volunteer for Lucy Adame-Clark charged with child abuse,” but tainting it further with this tabloid esque gossip is just in horrible taste. Anyway, you should vote for the one that isn’t homophobic and that isn’t friends with child beaters.

Mari Sanchez Belew – Donation Link

For Travis County Commissioners Court, we have Reese Armstrong, who is endorsed by two different local DSA branches, and who is running against incumbent Brigid Shea, who is running for a 4th term. From what I can find, there’s a lot to criticize about Brigid Shae, namely that she has referred to right wing donors Ellyn and Stephen Yacktman as “good people” after it was pointed out that she recieved $50,600 in donations from them. I will just let actionnetwork.org describe these two.

“During the 2023-2024 campaign cycle alone, Ellyn and Stephen Yacktman donated $500,000[2] to the Judicial Fairness PAC, a group dedicated to electing conservative judges, which is also heavily funded by Elon Musk. In 2024, the PAC helped flip multiple Texas appellate court seats from Democrat to Republican.[3]

Ellyn and Stephen Yacktman have also funded anti-LGBTQ, homophobic, and anti-trans causes and politicians, including $20,000 to the “Yes on Prop 8” campaign in California,[4] which sought to overturn same-sex marriage rights[5]; more than $326,361 to Dawn Buckingham [6] who co-authored a bill to designate gender-affirming care for transgender minors as child abuse [7]; and $15,000 to Donna Campbell,[8] who sponsored legislation to criminalize gender affirming care for minors. [9]

I have the feeling I could probably find more blots on Shae’s record, but this piece is getting close to 6K words, and I want to be done some time this century. Anyway, here’s the remaining candidates, all for a Judicial position.

Reese Armstrong – Donation Link

For the Texas Fourteenth District Court of Appeals Place 7, we have Michael Adams-Hurta, who has the backing of Run for Something and the Houston Progressive Caucus. For Texas 226th District Court, we have Anastacia Ochoa Nelson, who is endorsed by Kristian Carranza. For Texas 282nd District Court, we have Jeneba Barrie, who is endorsed by Run for Something and Junior Ezeonu. For Fort Bend County Judge, there’s Dexter McCoy,who is endorsed by Christian Menefee and Jon Rosenthal. For Travis County Justice of the Peace Precinct 1, we have Andrew Hairston, who is endorsed by Reese Armstrong, McCallum Young Democratic Socialists of America, and the Texas Working Families Party. For Harris County Justice of the Peace Precinct 7 Place 2, we have Markia Bordeaux, who is endorsed by Run for Something, Staci Childs, and the Houston Progressive Caucus! For Harris County Justice of the Peace Precinct 5 Place 2, Davis Mendoza Darusman, who is endorsed by Run for Something and the Houston Progressive Caucus. For Dallas County Criminal Court No. 9, Priscilla Villarreal, who is endorsed by Run for Something. And for Denton County Justice of the Peace, Michelle Butler, who is endorsed by Wendy Davis, the Texas Working Families Party, the Texas Progressive Caucus, and Run for Something.

Michael Adams-Hurta – Donation Link
Anastacia Ochoa Nelson – Donation Link
Jeneba Barrie – Donation Link
Dexter McCoy – Donation Link
Andrew Hairston – Donation Link
Markia Bordeaux – Donation Link
Davis Mendoza Darusman – Donation Link
Priscilla Villarreal – Donation Link
Michelle Butler – Donation Link

Okay I think that’s everything… nope wait, there’s one guy named Kadrius Knapper who is running for Little Rock School Board in Arkansas… okay now that’s everything.

Jesus fucking Christ there’s a lot happening. You’ve probably seen the overwhelming Democratic early voting turnout. Honestly, with that much turnout, there’s a part of me that believes there might be a chance even if Crockett gets the nomination, namely because winning in the first place would be proving she’s capable of inspiring turnout to begin with… or maybe I’m just trying to soften the blow in case he loses.

I think it’s safe to assume this is the largest Progressive Update piece I’ve written. I hope they all win, because I’m so tired of all the stupid bullshit in politics. I’m tired of the dumb, feckless, corporate Democrats, and I’m tired of the great value Gestapo Republicans. Thus far, both primaries and red vs blue races have been going well, let’s please keep it that way.

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