LAURA MOSER: Most of us would prefer not to spend the most money for the least efficient healthcare system in the world. Most of us don't think that women should go back to work within 14 days of giving birth. Most of us don't want our kids drinking from lead pipes or having preventable asthma attacks. Most of us also aren't that into raiding people's homes and separating mothers from their children and arresting refugees who have risked their lives multiple times to escape their war-torn homelands. My grandfather came here in 1942 as a refugee from Nazi Germany. Houston welcomed him, as Houston has welcomed hundreds of thousands of people like him over the decades.
AMY GOODMAN: So, that's Laura Moser's ad. This is very unusual, Mike, that the Democratic Party took a position in the Democratic primary attacking her?
MICHAEL BARAJAS: Yeah, and it tells you who they think -- well, it tells you how they think this district is going to vote, at the very least. I mean, I can't remember if they outright said this, but this is an indication that they don't think that kind of progressive candidate or that kind of candidate, with, you know, an outright progressive message, is going to be competitive against a Republican incumbent in that district. Who knows? I mean, Texas, like I said, has been changing in recent years. You know, there are a lot of factors at play -- you know, the anti-Trump sentiment that seems to be sweeping not just the country, but also parts of this state, particularly metro and suburban parts of the state. So, you know, clearly, voters thought she belonged in at least that runoff for the primary.
AMY GOODMAN: So, that runoff will take place --
MICHAEL BARAJAS: So, it'll be interesting to see how --
AMY GOODMAN: That runoff will take place on May 22nd. Now, what about Beto O'Rourke, the El Paso congressman? We spoke to him when we were doing a piece on a Mexican journalist who has been jailed for months, and he had visited him and was calling for his release. This El Paso congressman, Beto O'Rourke, has now gone -- what? -- throughout the state, in a very unusual primary campaign, and outraised Ted Cruz in the last months, though, of course, ultimately, Ted Cruz has much more money.
MICHAEL BARAJAS: Yeah, he's got -- I mean, I think the last figures that I saw were something like, you know, $6 to $5 million, between the two campaigns. I mean, Beto O'Rourke has clearly launched what's looking like a pretty credible campaign for Senate. I mean, the Democratic Party here is looking at him as sort of the -- he's the marquee race. They didn't field a lot of big-name candidates for governor, even though some folks have been looking at, you know, a rising star like, say, one of the Castro twins from San Antonio. Nobody was willing to jump into the race, in part because Texas maybe is seen as still too red to elect a statewide candidate like that for governor. But there's at least one statewide race where Democrats are really putting a lot of their hopes, and that's Beto O'Rourke.
And like you said, he's crossed the state. You know, he came out of the primary with a clear victory. He's not going to go to a runoff, so there's no sort of awkward split there. And he's going up against, in the general, who is widely seen as a pretty unpopular incumbent. You know, Ted Cruz certainly seems to be taking him seriously. I just saw him on MSNBC talking about gun control and really trying to define this race as, you know, "the liberal congressman from El Paso coming to take your guns, Texas." So, I think it's still safe to call that a long shot, but, you know, Texas looks different now than it did in 2014, so it's hard to say.
AMY GOODMAN: Well, it's one of four minority-majority states, and very significant for that. Can you talk about the two Latinas, the two Latina women, who are poised to become the first two Latina congressmembers from Texas?
MICHAEL BARAJAS: Yeah. So, I mean, Texas is going to get a couple firsts, just from the primary results last night. One of the presumptive members of Congress that you're talking about is out of Houston, Sylvia Garcia, who is a state senator. You know, she's going to take over a congressional seat that was created as a minority opportunity district back in the '90s in Houston. And that went to a white Democrat. And for two decades, Houston hasn't had a member of Congress who's a Hispanic. Not only are they going to get that this time around, but she's going to be one of the first Latina congressmen or congressmembers in the state.
Same goes for Escobar out of El Paso. She won that race in a crowded field. I think it was seven candidates, and she pulled away with something like 60 percent of the vote, a pretty strong showing. And she, you know, will, again, be one of the history makers, one of Texas's first Latina members of Congress.
AMY GOODMAN: And you may have one first openly lesbian member of Congress.
MICHAEL BARAJAS: Right. That's another one of those races that Democrats have targeted this particular election. That's -- Will Hurd currently holds the seat down in South Texas. It's a sprawling district that goes from San Antonio all the way out into West Texas. Because of how heavily gerrymandered it is, a lot of people see it as a toss-up now. Gina [Ortiz Jones] is the candidate that you're talking about. She came away with a pretty clear lead in a crowded field for that primary, something like 40 percent. So she's looking pretty good going into the runoff there. And you're right. If she goes up against Will Hurd and ultimately wins that race, she would be Texas's first openly gay member of Congress.
AMY GOODMAN: Mike Barajas, thanks so much for being with us. That does it for our show. Staff writer for The Texas Observer.
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