Posted on 03/05/2014 9:27:48 AM PST by DestroyLiberalism
I know a lot of FReepers here are depressed and frustrated by the outcome of the Senate primary race in Texas last night. And while I was hopeful that a more conservative candidate could at least force a run-off with John Cornyn, I think it's important to keep some things in proper perspective:
1) Cornyn happens to be the #2 ranking GOP member of the Senate. With this comes a huge campaign war chest and the full support and resources of his political party. With that said, it is extremely difficult to unseat a party incumbent entrenched in such a high leadership position and doing so would probably require the incumbent to be embroiled in some major scandal. Whether we wish to admit it or not, defeating Cornyn in last night's primary was realistically a long shot at best.
2) There was no coordinated effort by grassroots conservative organizations, talk radio, or Tea Party leaders on a national level to endorse and coelesce behind any one of Cornyn's primary opponents. This is not a criticism of any of these groups, but perhaps more accurately reflects our side simply choosing to focus more energy and finite resources on the more winnable open races and vulnerable incumbents from both parties. Having said that, it certainly didn't help matters to have Steve Stockman, who appeared to be emerging as the opposition frontrunner to Cornyn, inexplicably going AWOL on the campaign trail in the weeks leading up to last night's election.
3) Cornyn finished the night with under 60% of the total Republican vote count. That means nearly 41% of Texas Republican voters voted for a candidate OTHER than Cornyn! Folks, let me tell your right now that these results are no doubt making the GOP establishment elitists increasingly uncomfortable. Think about it... A #2 ranking incumbent Senator in a deeply red state really should command closer to 90% of his state party's primary votes, not 59%! Therefore, I would contend last night was NOT a particularly impressive showing for a powerful incumbent in a primary election against much lesser known opponents lacking the financial resources or infrastructure necessary to be more competitive.
4) As upset as we've been with Cornyn for caving and surrendering in some recent legislative battles, his overall conservative voting record is really not all THAT horrible if you take the following reputable grassroots organization scorecards into account:
American Conservative Union: 96%
Club for Growth: 93%
Heritage Foundation: 86%
FreedomWorks: 76%
Average: 88%
(I believe these numbers are based on 2013 legislation only... Thanks to FReeper "cotton 1706" for posting this info.)
Now, we all know that Cornyn is no Ted Cruz by any stretch of the imagination! On the other hand, Cornyn's voting record far exceeds RINOs such as Lindsey Graham, Thad Cochran, Lamar Alexander, and Mitch McConnell, all of whom I think are more vulnerable incumbents than Cornyn was. I believe we have a much greater chance of knocking off at least one or two of them as the primary season heats up and am looking forward to these respective races.
5) A party's ideological makeup is not transformed overnight. To remake the Republican party into one that stands for Constitutional conservative principles, we will need to fight MANY battles along the way. Some we'll win and some we won't. Remember, it took the left-wing progressives/communists decades of relentless efforts to incrementally win seats within the Democrat party before succeeding in completely taking it over.
6) Conservatism made a very strong showing overall in Texas last night! Greg Abbott received nearly three times the vote total of his soon-to-be left-wing Democrat opponent Wendy Davis. Tea Party favored candidate Dan Patrick beat incumbent establishment Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst by 13+ points and is now in a great position to win their upcoming run-off election. And if you were to remove all of Cornyn's votes, his presumably more conservative primary opponents still accumulated a combined vote total greater than that of all Democrat candidates! In other words, I see no evidence whatsoever of Texas turning "purple" anytime soon.
So let us not be discouraged by last night's Texas election results. The primary season is only just now getting started and there are still many races ripe for the picking to be won by conservatives. We haven't even begun to fight, FReepers!
Hey, thanks for the credit!
“Folks, let me tell your right now that these results are no doubt making the GOP establishment elitists increasingly uncomfortable.”
And I sincerely hope you’re right about this!
Cornyn’s an amnesty pimp, and a go along to get along fraud.
That’s all.
Once again we see the noise out of Texas is all hat, no cattle.
In the end, they just vote lockstep.
Hope they like living in Mexico, cuz that’s what he and the Bush’s plan to turn it into.
The War on Ted Cruz will begin in earnest now. He’s not one of the frat boys, and he keeps causing trouble. So he’s gotta go!
We need to make an effort to turn the Tea Party to a more friendly platform so that that the public’s perception of them is that they have more than just gray haired members. We need younger members.
BS. I have always wondered why we are always near the brass ring; but never seemed to grasp it. I believe a lot more people voted for Stovall than they are admitting to. It’s obvious with the sort of interjection of Stockman.
Nice job of spinning, but... that’s what it is: SPIN
Conservatives had a real chance to take out powerful RINO, but, but NO reasonable candidate was willing to take up the challenge.
We’ve got problems with the bench.
Not surprising. Not many people with sense would WANT to get into politics these days.
I went for Stovall. Overall there were eight Senate candiddates in the RP prrimary—— too many.
There is nothing inexplicable about this, just the usual thug political culture in action. Either Stockman had some sort of item in his history that could be blown up out of proportion or he has some potential IRS problem with income or campaign donation use or he has a personal (or had it doesn't matter how long ago) problem or he has a a wife or close relative with a present or past problem that he doesn't want spread across the Dallas News and Ft Worth Star Telegrams front page or he was just bought off by being given a deal he couldn't refuse.
“We need to make an effort to turn the Tea Party to a more friendly platform”
Yes, sure, that will work. That puts the Tea Party on the same level as the RINOs.
Because "compassionate conservatism" turned out so well.
Cornyn won the senate by 943,000 votes in 2008. If the Rats can get only a small percentage of his 4,326,639 voters to stay home or vote third party, the Rats could have a slim win. How hard is that going to be when 40% of Republicans voted anyone but Cornyn? I don’t know if there’s a chance of that happening, but the Rats have to love how the GOP is turning off its base.
As someone posted a column by Glenn Harlan Reynolds yesterday showing gun control has been defeated in this country over and over, we see that persistent effort, over time, defeats the liberal agenda and saves our country.
“Once again we see the noise out of Texas is all hat, no cattle.”
And you, sir, don’t know what you’re talking about. Dewhurst, poster boy for the GOPe who lost to Sen. Cruz thanks to the TEA Party in Texas, is again on his way to losing to the TEA Party choice, Dan Patrick, in the May 27 run-off for Lt. Gov., the most powerful office in Texas government. Four other state-wide candidates backed by the TEA Party won as well.
When your state can say the same, some back and tell us about it.
“Conservatives had a real chance to take out powerful RINO”
Too bad only 10% of them voted. There lies the problem.
Did anyone notice how Breitbart got their new TX writer team to run a 360 degree firing squad aimed at Stockman?
I posted the same thing on another thread. There were simply too many candidates and all had a similar message.
Photo ID required in this election.
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