Primary wrap-up. The Good. The Bad and the Ugly

I'm catching up.

The Good

We have some great candidates running in the general election. CD29 will be represented in the by Senator Sylvia Garcia. She has the experience and a history of dedication to her constituents and would continue that in Congress. CD29 is lucky to have her on the ballot.

CD7 had some great candidates who ran good campaigns and were serious about raising money. The residents now have to select a winner come May 22 between Lizzie Fletcher and Laura Moser.

Dana Steele won her primary and has brought some excitement to the district. Dana is the former DJ on 101 KLOL, the rock station of the 80’s.

Adrian Garcias, the former Harris County Sheriff won his primary for County Commissioner Pct 2. Another great candidate for those of us in Pct 2.

CD2 has Todd Litton who raised $500,000. Litton seems to be a serious candidate for Ted Poe's open seat.

The Bad

Javed Tahir ran against Sylvia Garcia and raised over $1 Million but $800,000 came from his own pocket. I understand why candidates will jump start their campaigns with a personal loan, but his loans came late in the game. It was as if he was attempting to buy the seat much like the republican Katherine Wall attempted to do. Wall, a republican, spent $6 Million of her own money to come in 3rd place. I hope Javed would consider supporting local Democratic clubs in the Beaumont area for other races.

Another young candidate raised only $53,000 which included a $27,000 loan to himself. This is like having a car payment without being able to drive the car. Hopefully he will not be burnt out and will continue to be politically active.

A candidate challenging Adrian Garcia for Commissioner raised enough money to buy a boat load of signs. He has learned that signs do not win elections.

And The Ugly

Remember when Sanders encouraged people to run for office, for school boards, city council, state office, congress, and United States Senate? For many, that didn’t work out well.

Sanders did a disservice to young people who wanted to become politically active after the 2016 election. Encouraging someone to run for office is easy. All you need is a few bucks and the time to put your name on the ballot. Unfortunately it is much harder to actually run for office, especially if you do not know what to do, you have no experience in doing it, and you have no ability or urge to raise the money to do it.

We had a slew of such candidates across the state. A candidate for Senate raised only $6,000 for a race that will require $40 Million. In CD23 two candidates are in a runoff. One has the ability, experience, and can raise money. The other raised just $24K in a district that will require at least $2M to be competitive. The same goes for CD7 where 3 of the 7 candidates were not viable but took time and money away from the serious contenders. Again this race will require millions to be competitive. CD2 had a couple of non contenders, spirited, but still non contenders. One candidate raised nearly half a million, the other 6 raised a total of $51,000. In CD29 there was a candidate that lent himself over $27,000 of the $53,000 he raised. He decided to jump in the ring to challenge “the establishment”. That didn’t work out very well. 

If a candidate can’t or wont raise money they should reconsider running. Raising the most money does not guarantee winning but not raising money guarantees losing. You can't get your message out if you do not have money. It is just that simple.

God bless everyone for running but their losses should send a message to those who wake up one morning and decided to run for office: Think before you wake up. Running for office, especially Congress is serious business. It’s not a game. It requires more than having a good reason for running. It requires money, large amounts of money, which means you, the candidate, are required to raise this money. It means long, long hours on the phone cold calling donors. It requires a plan to win, an understanding of the district, an estimate of the number of votes needed, and an understanding of how much money you need to win those votes. On top of that it requires volunteers, large amount of dedicated volunteers.

Getting wiped out because a candidate refuses to do their homeowner before waking up does a disservice to donors, supporters, and to the candidate. It may curb their enthusiasm to donate or volunteer, or to run again. It does no one any good.

But, again, thank you for running. I hope you will continue to be politically active, throw your support behind the nominee, and consider running again. (after you wake up and do your homework)