What we learned while interviewing dozens of Texas candidates

You can learn a lot by sitting down with dozens of political candidates for three weeks and asking them detailed questions about what they stand for, what sets them apart from their opponents, and why they deserve the vote.

You can go crazy, but let’s just focus on the first part.

This election cycle, our editorial team interviewed candidates for 39 local and state elections, and over the course of the interviews we gleaned key insights about the direction of state politics that we want to share here.

Gerrymandering: The first thing to say is that extreme gerrymandering continues to have an outsized impact on our democracy. In many districts, particularly strong Republican districts, candidates who ran before our board in their primaries saw no reason to do so in the general election. Too many races simply aren’t competitive enough to encourage candidates to sit down and answer questions from anyone who might challenge them. It may be a good political strategy, but it’s lousy representation.

The GOP: The most powerful element of the state’s Republican Party, the far right, is determined to run with the sole intention of capturing its base rather than seeking broader appeal. It’s one thing to decide not to show up for an interview, but there are many cases where GOP candidates simply don’t engage beyond a friendly audience.

Abortion: Many Democratic candidates in more competitive districts have softened their message on abortion and signaled that they want to return to the Roe v. Wade standard of viability. In an earlier cycle, many Democratic candidates tended to say that the decision about an abortion should be solely between the woman and her doctor. But in the general election, Democratic candidates were more likely to say that the government had an interest in whether elective abortions should be legal at some stage of pregnancy.

Gambling: The power of gambling interests continues to grow in the state, and their influence is not limited to one political party. A quick search of campaign finance reports this year for Texas Sands PAC, the political action committee behind the powerful Sands casino group, found more than $2.5 million in donations to politicians from Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, a Republican, to Austin state representative. James Talarico, a deep blue Democrat. There is still a group of Republicans who strongly oppose gambling. These tend to be Republicans in more rural areas supported by West Texas oilman Tim Dunn. But the gambling lobby is making big gains by convincing suburban Republicans and urban Democrats that the state needs to get involved in online gambling and at least some casinos in big cities like Dallas and Houston.

Border: Democrats are slowly and uncertainly becoming aware of their weakness at the border. We’ve seen more Democratic candidates embrace the idea of ​​the state playing some role in enforcing borders, especially when the federal government fails. But we’ve also seen Democrats who still have a weak understanding of border security. We have heard two candidates suggest that the state can process asylum applications, which is clearly in the hands of the federal government. Republicans continue to push for political advantage on this issue, particularly when it comes to getting the state to take over the work of border enforcement. The urgency to address border issues has eased somewhat as border crossings have declined. But we believe this is cyclical, and if there is an influx of migrants again, state Democrats will need to adopt a different strategy than calling federal Republicans obstructionists for blocking the bipartisan Lankford-Sinema bill .

Justice: We spent a lot of time this cycle interviewing candidates for the state’s two highest courts, the Texas Supreme Court, the final civil appeals court, and the criminal appeals court. We also interviewed candidates for the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals, the state’s largest intermediate appeals court, which serves North Texas districts.

Texas has many reasons to be proud of its judiciary. There is a lot of noise about our courts and how they are partisan ciphers. As you study the law and its application and speak with judges at all levels, you will develop greater confidence in our justice system. Yes, the Texas Supreme Court rulings are pro-business. But that reflects the state’s pro-business laws. At the appellate level, the majority-Democratic 5th Court is not continually overturned by the all-Republican Texas Supreme Court. Our judges have great respect for the work done. It is vital that our judiciary remains highly competent and highly professional. From our perspective, this is generally the judiciary that we have at the highest level.

Now a word of caution. We are deeply concerned about Attorney General Ken Paxton’s efforts to integrate bipartisan politics into judicial selection. Paxton was able to get three appeals court judges removed in the Republican primary because they opposed his unconstitutional efforts to expand his powers. The Supreme Court recently ruled against Paxton’s blatantly unlawful effort to require the State Fair of Texas to allow visitors to bring their guns to the fair. Will these conservative justices face challenges in the next election? If partisan politics plays a deeper role in our judicial elections than it already does, the state will suffer greatly.

Finallymost of us already know this, but it needs to be said. Political ads are caricatures of actual political candidates. Often these are pure inventions. Most of them belong straight in the trash. Yes, there are extreme candidates on the ballot. But most of the candidates who were willing to sit down with us and fill out our voter guide are not extremists. They are people with different ideas about how we should be governed. We must reject extremists of all stripes. But look beyond the ads and look at what the candidates really represent, their backgrounds and their positions. And then you can vote with confidence.

We look forward to hearing your thoughts in a letter to the editor. See the guidelines and Submit your letter here. If you have any problems with the form, you can email it to [email protected]