Harris County GOP Chair-Elect Puts Up Racist Post

The Harris County Republicans are still big mad that the citizens of Harris County in the 2018 Blue Tsunami fired many of them from office including former incumbent Harris County Judge Ed Emmett, every Republican judge on the ballot from the district to the state court of appeals level,, and the odious vote suppressing county clerk Stan Stanart.

Now that the largest and most diverse county by population in Texas is undeniably blue instead of purple, the Harris County Republicans are not only desperate to hang on to whatever political seats they have left here and flip some Democratic held ones, they are desperate for media attention as well.

And they are about to get it

 
Meet Keith Nielsen.   He just got elected as the new Harris County Republican Party chair and was due to start on August 3.  Before he even got a chance to take control of the party and start running thangs, he was derailed by a salient feature of the Republican Party.

Racism.

Republicans from Harris County to Austin to DC  are okay with covert racism, especially if it keeps them in power. But what they have a problem with is when that racism goes from the covert variety to the full blown non deniable overt variety.

When that eruption of overt racism and bigotry by someone in their ranks threatens their future election prospects, then it becomes a problem they address.

That's why you saw the amusing spectacle of Harris County area, state and national Republicans like Sen Ted Cruz, Gov Greg Abbott, Lt Gov Dan Patrick and Texas GOP chair James Dickey.denouncing the tweet and calling for his resignation.

It also didn't help Nielsen that GOP county chairs in Bexar (San Antonio) and Nueces (Corpus Christi) counties are also under fire  for their own offensive social media posts  that have gotten unwanted media attention

After resisting for a few days, Nielsen finally succumbed to the mounting political pressure and resigned.

The Harris County Republicans are back to where they started in terms of trying to find a new chair, and they can't under state election law start the process until August 3.

Sucks to be y'all.   But then again, I'm enjoying the schadenfreude 

It's Texas Primary Election Day!

It's Texas primary election day!   It's also Super Tuesday, in which Texas and 14 other states and territories are conducting their primary elections today.

While Texas and  California are the biggest delegate rich prizes today, the other states and territories participating in Super Tuesday are American Samoa, Maine, Vermont, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Virginia, North Carolina,  Tennessee, Arkansas, Alabama, Oklahoma, Colorado and Utah

Polls in Texas open at 7 AM and close at 7 PM    If you are in line at closing time, you must be allowed to vote.   Any shady behavior or voter suppression attempts at your polling places can  be reported at 866- OUR-VOTE

If you're unsure of who to vote for, I have some suggestions.

In case you're wondering if Moni practiced what she is preaching to y'all, I sure did.   I voted in the Democratic primary during the first day of early voting back on February 18.

If you live in Harris County, you can vote at any voting center in the county when the polls open.

So go handle your business.  Only takes a few moments out of your day and it's part of your civic duty to do so.  Besides, the kids who can't vote yet are counting on you to do it for them. 

Early Voting In The Texas Primary Starts Tomorrow

March 3 is the date you want to circle on your 2020 calendar if you wish to go handle your election business on primary election day.   But for those of you like myself who already have your minds made up and nothing is going to change it by waiting aonther week or so, early voting for the Texas primary starts tomorrow. 

The dates for Texas early voting are February 18-February 28.    In Harris County, you can vote at any voting center inside the county from 7 AM-7 PM CST.   On 'Souls To The Polls Day', Sunday February 23. the polls will be open from 1-6 PM CST 

There's also a new twist happening in this Texas primary election besides the fact the straight ticket voting option won't be on the ballot no thanks to our Texas GOP legislators.   In Harris County, Democratic and Republican primary election participants will be doing so from the same voting centers.

And if you're wondering who to vote for on the Democratic side, I have some suggestions.

This is a prinary election ballot, so it will be a long one, especially in Harris County. 

Vote the enitre ballor from POTUS to dog catcher, because there are good candidates wanting and needing your votes in races on that other end of the ballot as well, and those races are jsut as important as the presidential contest is.

Texas judicial benches, Texas State Board of Education, those offices are on the ballot and they  matter along with the state lege races.   Turning this state blue starts with you, the voters taking part in this and every election. .

The best part of early voting is that you choose when, whare and what time to do so, as long as you cast those ballots from Febraury 18-28 .   After those dates, you'll have to wait until the March 3 Election Day.

For those of you who aren't registered to vote for the primary, there's still time for you to get busy and get registered for the May runoff and general election on November 3.     To be eligible to vote in the May runoff election, you must be registered by April 2.   Final date to get registered for the general election in November is October 5

But first up is the primary elections what will play a major role in determining what peeeps are on your ballot in November    So tke some time out of your busy schedule to handle your electoral business.

     

Not Feeling Michael Bloomberg

It's not lost on me that on the 67th anniversary of the day Christine Jorgensen returned to New York after being in Denmark for two years for her physical transition and GCS, I'm looking at the prospect of having a transphobe on stage tonight at the Harris County Democratic Party's (HDCP)  Johnson Rayburn Richards (JRR) dinner being held tonight at the Marriot Marquis>

It ain't Julian Castro, who I am looking forward to hearing speak to night as the JRR keynote and hopefully getting a chance to meet.  Michael Bloomberg?   Not so much.

The JRR is the largest Democratic funraiser in Texas, and it's the one in which I received the Barbara Jordan Breaking Barriers Award from last year.  In the 2020 edition of the JRR, which is back to being a dinner now, awards will be presented to Amber Goodwin, Linda Morales, Cecile Richards and the Supermajority group..

I have not been happy with the remaing candidates available in the 2020 Democratic primary since Kamala Harris was forced to drop out along with all the other non white candidates.  I felt last year that 21 candidates in a presidential primary was far too many in a critical for our democracy election, and the sorry state of the primary confirms that.  My concerns are heighted by the realization that the Dems are the only thing standing beween Trump and a fascist dictatorship.

Neither am I happy that the media and Berners after Iowa and New Hampshire are rushing to crown Bernie Sanders as our nominee after primary contests in two of the whitest states in the nation.

Y'all need to slow your roll on that.  Guess y'all forgot about 2016 huh?   Rigged primary my azz. 

More like Black Democrats massively rejecting St Bernard of Sanders, and news flash, ain't nothing changed in Black America since 2016 concerning our low opinion of Sanders, no matter how much you believe the hype from Nina Turner.

Black Democratic voters matter, and it looks like we'll have to teach that lesson once again.  Early voting for the Texas prmary starts on February 18,  with the election happening on March 3.

FYI, Texas awards 262 delegates.  That dwarfs the number you can get in Iowa and New Hampshire combined .

But back to talking about Bloomberg.   One of the other things that has me concerned is this rush to canonize him as some sort of savior when he is deeply problematic to me and many Black Americans

And oh yeah, haven't forgotten that Bloomberg ran as a Republican to become mayor of New York

I'm not happy about the 2016 transphobic comments that Bloomberg uttered in Great Britain, and damned sure was paying attention when stop and frisk Black and Brown people was going on when he was running New York City. 

Many of the Black and Brown people being frisked by NYPD were also transgender New Yorkers.
It was also a policy that Bloomberg zealously defended and didn't apologize for until he decided to jump into the 2020 presidental race.

Note to Bloomberg:  Trans Democrats exist and you're about to find out that salient point the hard way that we do.   Some of us are major leaders in not only the national party, but in our local party organiations as well.

FYI, two of the first statewide trans inclusive non discrimation laws were passed in Minnesota and Iowa, so contrary to your 2016 transphobic opinion, Midwesterners and folks around the country do get the point that trans rights are human rights. 

Trans people are also part of everyone's family.  It's why the increased support for trans rights is happening along with trans folks across the country, our Mama and Papa Bears, and our allies fighting tooth and nail to make it happen.. 

So if you see me pouting at the JRR tonight, now you have the backstory on why.     .

Harris County Commissioners Court Issues TDOR Resolution

Blue elections have positive consequences, and one of those happy consequences was after over a decade of GOP control, we finally flipped the Harris County Commissioners Court, our county's governing body to blue with the elections of Lina Hidalgo as our first Latina county judge and Adrian Garcia in the heavily Latinx Precinct 2.

Earlier at today's Commissioners Court meeting, Commissioner Adrian Garcia offered and got passed a resolution noting that this was the 20th anniversary year of the Transgender Day of Remembrance.

It was signed by the Democratic members of Commissioners Court in Commissioners Garcia and Rodney Ellis and County Judge Lina Hidalgo.  As you probably guessed, the signatures that were noticeably absent from the resolution were those of Republican commissioners R. Jack Cagle and Steve Radack. 

Radack is unfortunately my commissioner (for now), and has been on Commissioners Court since 1980.   He is thankfully up for reelection next year.   Cagle barely survived a challenge from Penny Morales Shaw for his seat in 2018.

Looking forward to firing Radack's disco era azz

Thanks to Judge Hidalgo, and Commissioners Garcia and Ellis for recognizing trans Harris County residents and the importance of TDOR to us.

2019 H-Town Election Day!

It has been four years since we last had a municipal election, and that 2015 Houston municipal one was a painful and conflicting emotion inducing one for many of us in the Houston TBLGQ community.

While we were pleased to see Sylvester Turner survive and advance to a December runoff against Bill King to determine who would succeed term limited Mayor Annise Parker, what we weren't happy about was our HERO nondiscrimination ordinance being recalled after a shady and transphobic GOP fueled campaign and human rights malpractice by the Houston Unites coalition defending the ordinance.

The proposition that did pass in 2015 was one that changed the terms for the mayor, city council and controller to ta maximum of two four year terms instead of the previous maximum of three two year terms.

We're finally here and it's Election Day in H-town!  We have many candidates running for City Council and several challenging Mayor Turner's reelection bid, and one blast from the GOP past in Orlando Sanchez.    He's back, and this time he's challenging Controller Chris Brown.

A Republican has not sat in the Houston mayor's chair at The Horseshoe in over 40 years and the Harris County GOP is big mad about it.  The blue tsunami last year that swept them out of power in the county courthouse, county government and Harris County Commissioners Court only added to their pissivity and desperation to get any kind of representation in the soon to be third largest city and third largest county in the nation.

Polls are open from 7 AM to 7 PM CST, and in a new twist, if you're a Harris County resident, you can vote at any of 750 polling locations inside the county.

Blue Elections have positive consequences.

If you're still wondering who to vote for, here are my 2019 TransGriot municipal endorsements to help you make up your mind. 

But if you didn't take the time to take advantage of early voting, please take the opportunity to do so today, because voting is 100% more effective than complaining on the Internet that these politicians aren't doing anything. .

UH and TSU Are Back To Being Harris County Polling Locations

When I was a student at UH, the 1980 presidential election was happening during my freshman year.  While I eventually cast my ballot in my home precinct at Crestmont Park, I was still happy to know that we had a polling location set up in the UC for students to vote at. 

The same was the case at Texas Southern, which is one of the largest HBCU campuses in the nation and just a few blocks west of the UH campus.

When the Republicans got control of ethnically diverse Harris County, knowing that it provides at this point 25% of the vote total in a statewide election, the polling places on the UH and TSU campuses were removed.

At the same time, Texas Republicans when they passed their voter suppression laws in 2011, made sure that student ID's from a Texas college or university were no longer valid identification in order to make it harder for college students to vote.

Elections have consequences, and one of the happy consequences of the 2018 Blue tsunami that flipped Harris County back to dark blue Democratic Party control was the election of Dr. Diane Trautman to replace the odious GOP hack Stan Stanart as our Harris County Clerk. 

The county clerk, for you non-Texans, is the Chief Elections Administrator.  She's the person that establishes the procedures and policies that determine how elections are run in the largest county in Texas by population, where we vote and even the times we're able to do so subject to state and federal election law and approval of Harris County Commissioner's Court.



In addition to the welcome policy of being able to vote at any polling location in Harris County, polling locations were reestablished on the University of Houston and Texas Southern University campuses.

"It's important for young people to be involved in the elections process", said Dr Trautman. "These additional voting locations will make it easier for students, faculty and staff, as well as the surrounding communities to vote " 

That's significant, because UH has over 40,000 students and 7000 faculty and staff, while TSU has over 9000 enrolled students.   They deserve a say in who will govern them while they are matriculating on the UH and TSU campuses at the local, state and national level.

This will be effective for the upcoming November 5 municipal elections.


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I'm Getting An Award At The JRR Luncheon!

I've never been to the annual Johnson Rayburn Richards event that Harris County Democratic Party conducts.\  It's one of their biggest fundraisers, and one of the biggest for any of the Democratic Party organizations in the Lone Star State.

But this year I'll be attending it for the first time, and a I have pretty good reason for doing so.

I've known about it for a week now, but was asked to keep it quiet until the official announcement could be made.by the HCDP.

I'll be receiving the Barbara Jordan Breaking Barriers Award at this year's JRR luncheon!

As a native Houstonian who was a witness to the remarkable trailblazing political career of this legendary H-town Democrat, it is a high horor to receive an award named for her.

That also means I'll be writing a speech for the occasion, and so looking forward to being there on May 24 to deliver it and receive the award along with my fellow JRR Award honorees Yolanda Black Navarro and Ai-jen Poo for it.

Moni's Investiture Speech For Judge Bill McLeod

The text of the speech speech I'm delivering for Judge Bill McLeod's investiture today.

To Judge McLeod, distinguished judges, friends and guests in attendance.  

Happy Blue Year to all of you!  

It is a sincere honor and pleasure to have been asked to say a few words at this investiture ceremony today,  While I have attended a few of these investiture ceremonies in the past and will be attending quite a few more during the rest of this month and into February, this is the first time I have gotten to participate  in one of these beyond just being in supportive attendance of the judge being sworn in.

One of our local sheroes in Barbara Jordan once said,“What the people want is simple.  They want an America as good as its promise.

Substitute the words ‘Harris County’ for America, and you have the reason why we are sitting in this ceremonial courtroom today.  

We are sitting here because of the historic change that Harris County voters enabled on November 6 with their votes.   We are sitting here because Harris County voters wanted a county as go as its promise, and wanted its leadership to reflect the beautiful diversity of all 5 million of us who are please to call this part of southeast Texas home.  .

As part of the yearning to have leadership that reflected the diversity of this community, it’s why on November 6  we elected a diverse slate of talented servant leaders with decades of experience practicing law to serve on our Harris County judicial benches.

The Rev Dr Martin Luther King Jr said that, "Law and order exist for the purpose of establishing justice and when they fail in this purpose they become the dangerously structured dams that block the flow of social progress."

Judges play an important role in our system of government because they are the umpires who call the legal balls and strikes and ensure that justice is impartially served regardless of race, creed, color, gender identity or economic status.  

And having known Judge McLeod personally for several years, I he is a caring, compassionate and loving person.  He is a wonderful community leader with a keen legal mind. I have no doubts that he will bring his full self into the task of ensuring justice is  served and fairly administered for all who appear before him.
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Congratulations, your Honor.  May you have a long and successful term serving the citizens of Harris County on the County Court at Law Number 4 bench.   

Speaking At Judge McLeod's Investiture Ceremony Today

Another day in Houston, another investiture ceremony.   Because of the Democratic judicial sweep that cleaned all 59 benches in the Harris County court system of every sitting Republican judge, we've had the pleasure of gleefully watching or attending a investiture every day.

Today, it's Judge William McLeod's turn, and this time I'll be an active participant in one instead of a guest sitting in the audience watching it. 

I've been given the honor by Judge William McLeod to be one of the two speakers at his investiture in the ceremonial courtroom on the 17th floor of the Harris County Civil Courts building. 

Looking forward to doing that starting at 2 PM CST, and if you can make it, hope you'll join me there to honor him. 

First Meeting Of The New Harris County Commissioners Court Today

We have been having a wonderful first week of the New Year because we flipped Harris County to dark blue in the 2018 midterms. 

There has practically been an investiture ceremony for our new diverse group of Democratic judges every day at the county courthouse, and I'm speaking at one of them on Thursday for Judge Bill McLeod.

At 10 AM CST this morning we'll get to gleefully watch another historic Harris County political moment as we have our first Harris County Commissioners Court meeting of 2019 with our Democratic majority in place. 

It will also be the first one in which our new County Judge Lina Hidalgo will be presiding over. 

I'm a native Houstonian, but I have never gone downtown to attend a Harris County Commissioner's Court meeting because in large part of it being a Republican controlled body and a waste of my time to do so.

Now with a diverse Democratic majority on it for the first time since I was in high school, this governing body for the third largest county by population in the United States (Harris County has 5 million residents)  has gotten my undivided attention.

Elections matter people, and because of the blue tsunami that swept through Harris County and swept GOP officeholders out with it, it's a brand new day here politically.

We have already seen evidence of that at the county courthouse, where the new judges elected in the Democratic sweep of all 59 judicial benches filed a motion yesterday to withdraw from the appeal of the bail bonds system lawsuit.   The county bail bond system was declared unconstitutional

The suit alleges the county unfairly jails those charged with misdemeanors who cannot afford bail. A federal district judge ordered Harris County to remedy the situation, but the suit has been held up in the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals.   All the Republican criminal court judges named in the lawsuit were swept out of office

Partisan political hack Stan Stanart was fired as county clerk by Harris County voters and replaced by Dr. Diane Trautman.   One immediate change was the ability to register to vote online on the county clerk website.   Discussions have started to implement countywide voting centers in which you are able, just as you can during the early voting period, to do so at any location on Election Day. 

One of the items on the agenda for the Harris County commissioner's court meeting is a $15 minimum wage for all county employees.

Looking forward to attending my first ever Commissioner's Court meeting.   

Congratulations Judge Rabeea Collier!

Yesterday afternoon I got to witness some Texas history being made.

While many people have heard of the 17 African American women being elected to the judicial benches in Harris County, another story being missed is that we had a large group of Asian American judges running for office in this cycle as well.

One of those judges who was successfully elected was Rabeea Sultan Collier.   This was her second run for a judicial bench.  She lost a Democratic primary runoff for the 11th District bench in 2016.

Her second run was much more successful.  She overwhelmingly won the 2018 Democratic primary race for the 113th District Court seat, and comfortably defeated the Republican incumbent Michael Landrum in the November midterm election.

The TSU Thurgood Marshall School of Law grad has been a practicing attorney for 12 years.  She's served as a board member of the Harris County Democratic Lawyers' Association, the Association of Women Attorneys, and served on the State bar of Texas' Women in the Profession Committee.

During the 2018 cycle, Collier made history on multiple fronts with her November 6 win.   She became the first person of Pakistani descent and the first Muslim woman to ever win a Texas judicial bench.

I had the honor and distinct pleasure of watching Rabeea's investiture ceremony yesterday inside a packed Harris County Civil Court building ceremonial courtroom in which she took the oaths of office.

As of Wednesday morning, she began writing her own chapter of the distinguished history of the 113th District Court.   She is only the second woman ever to serve as a judge in this court.

Along the way she will serve as a role model and a leader to many inside and outside her community 

Congratulations Judge Collier!  It was an honor and a pleasure to be there to witness history and meet your family.  I know you will be an outstanding judge, and continue to be a trailblazing leader in our community.

Swearing In Of Harris County Officials Today!

Happy Blue Year!

In a few hours, I'll be at NRG Center to watch the swearing in ceremony for all our newly elected Harris County officials. 

For those of you who aren't aware of what happened here on Election Night, Harris County (translation the county that Houston is in) went dark blue on November 6. 

A blue tsunami swept through the most populous county in Texas and swept out every incumbent Republican judge.  Harris County voters replaced them with a diverse, experienced group of Democratic judges that included 19 Black women.

The blue tsunami also put Lizzie Fletcher in George HW Bush's old TX-7 congressional seat that had been in Republican hands for 50 years.   It also gave us an opportunity to send former TX state Senator Sylvia Garcia to Washington DC along with Fletcher as part of the new Democratic House majority taking office in 48 hours.

Garcia, along with Veronica Escobar, who won the race to succeed Beto O'Rourke in Congress, become the first Latinas Texas has ever sent to the US Congress.

Democrats also got control of the Harris County Commissioners Court with the election of Latinx peeps Lina Hidalgo as our new county judge and Adrian Garcia as Precinct 2 commissioner.

In addition to making our Harris County judicial ranks finally look like the diverse county we are, we also fired Stan Stanart, our much loathed county clerk, and replaced him with Diane Trautman.

The county clerk is the person who administers voting procedures, and Stanart was a partisan GOP hack hellbent on suppressing votes.   That ends today 

Marilyn Burgess will take office today as our Harris County District Clerk.  We also sent Orlando Sanchez packing and replaced him with a new county treasurer in Dylan Osborne

What a wonderful way to kick off 2019 in terms of watching dozens of Democrats get sworn into office as the Republicans they replaced suck their teeth and whine that 'straight ticket voting cost us our offices'

Naw GOP boo boos.  It wasn't straight ticket voting that did you in.  It was the fact your party is seen by a majority of voters as intolerant and hostile to people of color.   The Republican Party has become toxic to a majority of Harris County voters, and you refuse to deal with the reality of that.

You Harris County GOP fans let that truth sink into those hard heads while I get dressed to watch my friends and every Democrat I gleefully voted for get sworn into office.