VOTER INFORMATION:
February 20: Early Voting Begins
March 1: Early Voting Ends
March 5: Election Day
View your personal ballot, voter information, polling locations, wait times, and more here.
PRIMARY BASICS:
The Primary Election decides which candidates will be on the ballot in the November General Election.
The state is divided into numerous districts and precincts for different offices. For example, US representative districts are different than Texas representative districts. You may only vote in the districts that you live in.
At the polls, you will select a Republican or a Democratic ballot to cast your votes. You must vote in either the Republican primary or the Democratic primary; you cannot mix and match.
Early voting begins Tuesday, February 20th and continues through Friday, March 1st. Election day is Tuesday, March 5th. Phones are not allowed at the polls. You should print out or write down your choices and bring them with you.
Below is a list of recommendations for progressive or more progressive candidates to vote for in the primary election. Offices where candidates are running unopposed have been omitted from this list. This list is for Travis County voters.
NATIONAL:
President: no endorsement
Senator: Roland Gutierrez
The senate is the upper chamber of congress. Every state has two senators to represent them. The candidate that wins the primary will go up against Ted Cruz in November.
Read more about senators here.
Collin Allred is the frontrunner in this race, however, he leans more moderate and is certainly not progressive. Gutierrez is the only candidate that has called for a ceasefire and has shown up in times for crisis for Texans where other candidates have been absent.
I liked this article about Gutierrez.
The other candidates running in the democratic party are:
United States Representative, District 10: Theresa Boisseau
US Representatives are members of congress. There are five congressional districts in Austin and three of them are Republican. You can only vote in the districts that you live in. You can find out which district you're in at votetravis.com.
Learn more about US Representatives here.
View the Austin congressional district map here.
Boisseau is one of two democratic candidates running to race against longtime republican incumbent Michael McCaul (also one of the richest people in congress, fun fact) in district 10, and is generally more progressive than her opponent. They're both running to restore reproductive rights for Texas vagina-holders and improved access to renewable energy, however Boisseau is a bit more put together than her opponent, which I think will be extremely important for someone in congress.
The other candidate is:
United States Representative, District 37: Lloyd Doggett
This is another race for congress. Doggett is the current incumbent and while he hasn't been the most progressive always, he's a better choice than his opponents.
His opponents' online presences leave a lot to be desired, and I really couldn't find out anything about their stances on popular issues.
The other candidates are:
STATE:
Railroad Commissioner: Bill Burch
Railroad Commissioners don't do railroads. They regulate oil & gas. There's three railroad commissioners, they're all republican, and they're all allowing drastic and costly environmental crises to happen across the state while lining their pockets with corporate bribes. I don't have faith any Democrats are going to win one of these offices any time soon, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't try. It will take a lot of time to turn the commission blue, and that's a battle worth choosing.
Read more about railroad commissioners here.
Read more about corruption in the railroad commission here, and here, and here.
Both candidates emphasize environmental responsibility and accountability in the oil world. Culbert strongly emphasizes taking down dangerous corporate oil companies, but I went with Burch because of his concentration of protecting oil workers, particularly those who are undocumented, and his support union campaigns.
The other candidate is:
Here's a conversation with Burch.
And here's a conversations with Culbert.
Justice, Supreme Court, Place 2: Randy Sarosdy
This race is for a judge for the Texas Supreme Court. As we saw with Roe v. Wade, judges can have drastic impacts on the rights of Texans. Though they should always act unbiased and in accordance with the law, we know especially in Texas that doesn't always happen.
Read about the Texas Supreme Court here.
Read about how judges have impacted national politics here.
Read about how Texas supreme court judges have affected the rights of Texans here.
I liked how Jones was more specific in his stances on far-right ideologies, but Sarosdy had more a more detailed and well-thought out vision. I do have to say though, if another cis white man runs on a campaign of having a "diverse" perspective, I'm gonna lose it.
The other candidate is:
Justice, Supreme Court, Place 6: Bonnie Lee Goldstein
Goldstein's website is just a resume and doesn't really touch on any of her beliefs. I suppose that's a good thing for a judge. According to the chronicle, her opponent is a recently reformed republican with troubling, racist opinions.
The other candidate is:
State Representative, District 19: Dwain Handley
State representatives are members of the lower chamber of Texas government. They are part of the Texas House of Representatives. There are 150 representatives, one per district. They're lawmakers.
Learn more about state representatives here.
This race is against republican incumbent Ellen Troxclair. Both candidates could use some website help, but I generally trusted Handley's ideas more.
The other candidate is:
State Representative, District 50: James Talarico
Talarico is the incumbent representative, one of the youngest state reps, and has a proven track record of getting shit done. Boyton doesn't have a lot of information online and I found it hard to get to know his ideas.
The other candidate is:
Justice, 3rd Court of Appeals District, Place 2: Maggie Ellis
The 3rd Court of Appeals covers 24 Texas counties and has jurisdiction of both civil and criminal cases appealed from lower courts. There are 6 justices: one chief justice and five other justices.
Learn more about the 3rd Court of Appeals here.
Ellis has the most progressive ideals of the three candidates and I trust most of the people and organizations that have endorsed her. She's running to de-seat democratic incumbent Edward Smith.
The other candidates are:
Justice, 3rd Court of Appeals District, Place 5: Thomas J. Baker
Baker is the democratic incumbent. I like Karin Crump, but if she wins Greg Abbott gets to choose her replacement. Judges can do a lot of damage and I don't feel like it's necessary to deal with an Abbott judge, even if it's for a relatively short while. I'm not sure the good Crump could do is worth the damage her replacement could do.
The other candidate is:
District Judge, 353rd Judicial District: Sherine Thomas
These are trial courts. There's around 477 district courts in Texas. Judicial districts are determined by state legislature. There's 11 district courts in Travis County. Each court has a judge.
Learn more about district judges here.
The incumbent is "democrat" Madeleine Connor, who has a track record of voting Republican and has been declared a "vexatious litigant", which means she files unnecessary lawsuits. I chose Thomas over Castillo because of her experience but I don't have a strong opinion for either Thomas or Castillo. Just not Connor.
The other candidates are:
District Attorney, 53rd Judicial District: José Garza
Garza is the daddy of progressive DA's. He cleaned up a depressing backlog of sexual assault cases and has been the main prosecutor of cops and protesters from the 2020 protests. He is a king. His opponent is simply, not progressive at all.
The other candidate is:
Justice of the Peace, Precinct 5 - Unexpired Term: Tanisa Jeffers
These are smaller or minor court cases. There's five precincts in Travis county, one justice per precinct. Precinct 5 frequently deals with evictions and housing security.
Read more about Justices of the Peace here.
Read more about Precinct 5 here.
It's important Justices in this district are willing to exploring everything before eviction. Houselessness is a massive issue in Austin, and eviction courts can be the deciding factor of one's housing security. Jeffers has a progressive platform that I trust will keep Austin housed. The current incumbent Rick "Rico" Olivo doesn't have much an online platform, but he did just launch a tequila line.
The other candidates are:
Precinct Chair 207
Precincts are the smallest political subdivisions in Texas. Precinct chairs organize and communicate with voters in their party’s precinct. Almost none of the precinct chairs running have an online presence, so I did not endorse these seats.
The candidates are:
James Daly
Tim Mahoney (note: this website doesn't look like it's been updated since his last run for office.)
Precinct Chair 402
Gavino Fernandez Jr.
Gerda W. Ray
Precinct Chair 445
Kristen Ylana Gonzalez
Carolyn Langford
Other links:
More Perspectives on the Races
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2 comments
Thank you for putting in this work!!
Heli has also called for a ceasefire.