FORT BEND COUNTY, Texas — Republican Gary Gates took the Texas House District 28 seat with 58 percent of the votes in the nationally targeted special election runoff.

Democrat Eliz Markowitz released a statement following the results:

“We knew this election would be tough — it’s not easy to take on Republicans in an off-year special election, but we made this seat competitive in a way it’s never been before. We head into November having established a movement for change and that movement will continue across the state of Texas through November. This is a grassroots campaign dedicated to putting people over special interests, and we’ve built a network that will last for years to come.”

Democrats hoped a win in State House District 28 race could help turn the Texas House blue and signal bigger political change ahead in November.

District 28 is a historically Republican seat in a growing and diversifying area. Since incumbent Dr. John Zerwas resigned in September 2019, outside groups have spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to flip the seat.

Read more: https://www.khou.com/article/news/local/all-eyes-on-nationally-watched-texas-house-runoff-race-in-fort-bend-county/285-72303db3-9adc-4494-ba2d-ccdb9123a86a

FORT BEND COUNTY, Texas — Republican Gary Gates took the Texas House District 28 seat with 58 percent of the votes in the nationally targeted special election runoff.

Democrat Eliz Markowitz released a statement following the results:

“We knew this election would be tough — it’s not easy to take on Republicans in an off-year special election, but we made this seat competitive in a way it’s never been before. We head into November having established a movement for change and that movement will continue across the state of Texas through November. This is a grassroots campaign dedicated to putting people over special interests, and we’ve built a network that will last for years to come.”

Democrats hoped a win in State House District 28 race could help turn the Texas House blue and signal bigger political change ahead in November.

District 28 is a historically Republican seat in a growing and diversifying area. Since incumbent Dr. John Zerwas resigned in September 2019, outside groups have spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to flip the seat.

Read more: https://www.khou.com/article/news/local/all-eyes-on-nationally-watched-texas-house-runoff-race-in-fort-bend-county/285-72303db3-9adc-4494-ba2d-ccdb9123a86a

While Florida Republicans are on their way to further limit women’s healthcare, a Central Florida pastor who also serves as the Trump administration’s spiritual advisor is arguing that it’s somehow fine for God to terminate a pregnancy as long as it’s “satanic.”

Apopka preacher Paula White, the Special Adviser to the White House Faith and Opportunity Initiative also known as Trump’s “God Whisperer,” gave a sermon on Jan. 25, and an absolute batshit insane clip of the event was posted to Twitter last weekend.

In the video, the televangelist can be seen shouting, “We command all satanic pregnancies to miscarry right now!” and urging “anything that has been conceived in satanic wombs, that it will miscarry and not be able to carry forth any plans of destruction,” not to mention how she comes against the “marine kingdom” and the “animal kingdom,” whatever that means.

“We command all satanic pregnancies to miscarry right now” — Special Adviser to the White House Faith and Opportunity Initiative Paula White pic.twitter.com/gtdZyGfkxy
— Guthrie Graves-Fitzsimmons (@GuthrieGF) January 25, 2020

White has since stated that the clip is being taken out of context, and that she wasn’t actually praying for literal miscarriages of satanic pregnancies, but for metaphorical miscarriages of satanic pregnancies. Thank you, Lord.

Read more: https://www.orlandoweekly.com/Blogs/archives/2020/01/27/florida-pastor-and-trump-spiritual-advisor-prays-for-all-satanic-pregnancies-to-miscarry-right-now

Roy Moore is seeking more than $40 million in a lawsuit he filed Monday against a Washington magazine, three of its writers, its editors and owners over a series of what he describes as “fake news” attacks stemming from accusations he faced while a U.S. Senate candidate in 2017.

Moore, who is again running for the Senate, filed the lawsuit in federal court against the Washington Examiner publishing company and ownership and five employees.

It's the sixth lawsuit Moore has filed relating to the allegations that he made unwanted sexual and romantic advances to teen girls when he was in his 30s.

Moore has repeatedly denied all allegations.

Read more: https://www.al.com/news/2020/01/roy-moore-files-40-million-fake-news-lawsuit.html

Survey conducted January 22-23.

1,460 likely Democratic voters.
MOE: 2.6%

https://www.realclearpolitics.com/docs/2020/Missouri_Scout_Remington_MO_Dem_Jan_2020.pdf

by Alex Samuels and Patrick Svitek, Texas Tribune


The battle for former supporters of Julián Castro and Beto O’Rourke is continuing apace as Democratic presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren unveils a fresh round of endorsements from Texas lawmakers.

In announcement first shared with The Texas Tribune, Warren’s campaign unveiled the support of four legislators who represent O’Rourke’s native El Paso: Sen. José Rodríguez; Reps. Art Fierro and Mary González; and House Speaker Pro Tem Joe Moody. All four previously supported Castro or O’Rourke, and some, like Moody, were initial O’Rourke supporters who switched over to Castro after O’Rourke ended his campaign in November.

“I’m proud to endorse Elizabeth Warren for President because she has a proven track record as a fighter for working families and a champion for LGBTQ+ equality,” González, who chairs the House LGBT Caucus, said in statement. “I know she’ll make big, structural change to deliver real progress to people in Texas and across the country.”

The latest announcement comes as Warren keeps increasing her focus on the state ahead of Super Tuesday, or March 3. The rush for support within the state opened up after the departures of both Texans in the race — and Castro’s decision to back Warren shortly after he dropped out earlier this month. Since then, Warren and Joe Biden have been trading endorsement rollouts. In one case, the former vice president released a list of new Texas endorsements the day after Castro endorsed Warren.

Read more: https://www.texastribune.org/2020/01/21/elizabeth-warren-backed-texas-lawmakers-who-endorsed-orourke-castro/

by Ana Ley

Two of Nathan Clark’s peers on the Portsmouth City Council criticized his decision to wear an AR-15 into a public meeting — without telling them ahead of time — to show his enthusiasm for the Second Amendment. One asked him to apologize.

“It was a disgrace, disheartening and an embarrassment,” Vice Mayor Lucas-Burke wrote to the council Thursday morning. “Most of us were blindsided by the display.”

Emails obtained by The Virginian-Pilot show Councilman Shannon Glover first raised the issue in an email to the entire council late Wednesday. A day earlier, hundreds of gun rights advocates packed chambers to capacity and convinced a majority of council to make Portsmouth a so-called “Second Amendment Constitutional City.” It was a symbolic decision aimed to deter gun control efforts at the Virginia General Assembly after Democrats took control of both chambers this year.

In the emails, Lucas-Burke agreed with Glover and also asked for an apology, while Councilman Bill Moody defended Clark.

Read more: https://www.pilotonline.com/government/local/vp-nw-portsmouth-gun-emails-20200117-fjtmcjg7jnhlnio6i5fpisjv74-story.html

Note: This message is from my email account.

This weekend of action for Eliz Markowitz could not have gone any better.

More than 400 of us signed up to volunteer for over 750 canvassing shifts, and we ended up knocking on more than 12,000 doors.

Make no mistake: that is an incredible accomplishment. A special runoff election like this one will probably be decided by a few thousand votes or less. And we just knocked on 12,000 doors. Now our job is to keep up the momentum as we enter the home stretch.

We’re hosting another Weekend of Action in just a few days. From Friday through Monday (January 17-20). It’s our last one before Early Voting starts. Click here to sign up now!

This is a critical moment — not only for Texas, but for our country too. Together, we’ll continue to rise up to these challenges, have important conversations in our communities, and win big.

We hope we’ll see you this upcoming weekend. All you have to do is sign up here. And don’t forget to bring your family, friends, and neighbors.

Gratefully,

The Powered By People team

https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2020/01/14/scorecard-grading-debate-performance-democratic-candidates/2xkQZYk3B0jD0ll3GPTVNN/story.html

Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller is endorsing former Vice President Joe Biden for president, just three weeks before the Iowa caucuses.

Miller, first elected in 1978 and serving his 10th term in office, became the longest-serving state attorney general in the history of the United States over the weekend. He was an early backer of Barack Obama in the 2008 presidential election cycle.

Miller, a Democratic, had backed Montana Gov. Steve Bullock in the 2020 race before Bullock dropped out in December.

In an interview with the Des Moines Register on Sunday, Miller said he's getting involved again because the last month before the caucuses is "too important and too much fun to be on the sideline."

Read more: https://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/news/elections/presidential/caucus/2020/01/13/iowa-attorney-general-tom-miller-endorses-joe-biden-president-2020-iowa-caucuses/4449485002/