Number 21- Rest In Power and Peace Nikki Janelle Enriquez

I was made aware of the latest trans murder victim in large part because she was one of the victims of the US Border Patrol agent who has been arrested for killing four women between September 3-15.

Been aware that we lost a trans woman since Saturday, but took me this long to confirm it because in large part of her being deadnamed and misgendered by Webb County law enforcement officials before they corrected it.

The latest trans person we have lost is 28 year old Nikki Janelle Enriquez.   What we know so far is that she was murdered by accused serial killer Juan David Ortiz around September 14-15, and according to authorities her body was found dumped along I-35 at mile marker 15.

He has now been charged with her murder and the murder of three other cis women.

After Ortiz is tried and hopefully found guilty, may he get the death penalty or rot in jail for life.

Her life and the lives of the other cis feminine people lives he callously took from all who loved them deserve justice     We'll be watching to see if that happens or Webb County falls into the disgusting pattern of not giving people who murder trans folks the sentences they deserve.

Nikki also went by the name Janelle.   No word yet from my trans family in the RGV and south Texas as to a memorial service or memorial vigil.    If I find out, I will pass that information along to you.

She is the second Latina trans Texan we have lost this year, the third trans Latina in the US murdered this year, and the 21st trans person this year violently taken from us.   

And once again, she is the tenth trans person under age 30 we've violently lost in 2018 and the 18th trans person of color.   17 of those trans POC have ben trans women.  We have also had one Black trans man killed this year who also ID as gender non conforming.

#TransLivesMatter   #TransLatinaLivesMatter.  When will the lives of Latinx trans folks become just as valuable to cis Latinx folks?    When will we see an end to the murders of trans people, no matter what their ethnic background?

Rest in power and peace, Nikki   You can begin to rest soundly knowing that the person who killed you is in custody.  Your trans family and all who loved you in the Lone Star State and around the country will be watching and waiting to see if the Webb County DA handles his business and you get justice for the abrupt end of your all too brief life.       

US Border Patrol Agent Serial Killer Victims Includes A Latina Trans Woman

You are probably been aware of the story coming out of the Lone Star State over the weekend concerning a Laredo area supervisory Border Patrol agent who is accused of being a serial killer that targeted sex workers.

35 year old Juan David Ortiz, a ten year veteran of the Border Patrol, has been arrested and charged with the first degree murder of four women. Ortiz  has also been charged with unlawful restraint with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon in Erika Pena according to Webb County DA Isidro R. 'Chilo Alaniz.

Ortiz has also confessed to the murders of the four women , and is in jail on a $2.5 million bond.

Pena was talking to him inside his white four door Dodge truck when the conversation turned to discussing Ramirez, who had disappeared a week earlier and was her friend. 

Ortiz's mood changed, and he subsequently pulled a gun on Pena, pointed it at her and tried to grab her shirt to prevent her escape from the vehicle.  Pena took off her shirt and ran to a nearby gas station where she encountered a DPS state trooper.  Pena gave a detailed description of Ortiz including his tattoos to law enforcement officials, which triggered the manhunt for him that led to his arrest.   

Ortiz was found at another gas station in Laredo, and fled on foot to a nearby Ramada Inn where he was found hiding in the bed of a pickup truck in the parking lot of the motel. 

DA Alaniz has called Ortiz a serial killer.   Webb County officials aren't dismissing the possibility there may be more victims.   Ortiz committed a string of murders of women between September 3 and September 15 of women who were presumed to be sex workers. 

The body of 29 year old Melissa Ramirez was found lying on Jefferies Road near TX state highway 255 with multiple gunshot wounds to the head on September 4 in northwest Webb County. 

She was the first of Ortiz's victims, and he admitted to killing the mother of two on September 3

The second victim, 42 year old Claudine Anne Luera, was found shot multiple times in the head and left mortally wounded along TX state highway 255 two miles from where Ramirez's body was discovered.   She was taken to a local hospital where she later succumbed to her injuries.

The last two victims were killed after Pena escaped from Ortiz's truck but before he was finally apprehended bylaw enforcement.   One is a still as yet unidentified Jane Doe whose body was found at the Webb Road underpass of I-35 near mile marker 21.   Her name will be released once next of kin are notified.

The other is 28 year old Nikki Janelle Enriquez.  She is the trans woman who was initially deadnamed and misgendered by law enforcement officials and local media until it was corrected.

She was killed around September 14-15 according to authorities and her body was also found along I-35 at mile marker 15.

Enriquez sadly becomes the 21st trans person to be murdered in the US, the third Latina and the second one in Texas in 2018

Texas Conservafools Snatching Beto Yard Signs

When Rep. Beto O'Rourke (D-El Paso) announced his candidacy for the US senate,  the Texas Republican Party sneered and laughed about it

Sen. John Cornyn (R) arrogantly said back on May 4, "Beto is going to give him a run, but I don't think he has a chance." 

Fast forward to us being less than 30 days from the October 22 start of early voting in the Lone Star State.   Beto has visited all 254 counties in Texas.   He is depending on the polls, within two to four  percentage points of Rafael, building momentum towards Election Day, and making appearances on Ellen, the Stephen Colbert Show and more frequent appearances on national news shows. 

Cornyn has changed his tune from a dismissive smirk to outright sounding the alarm that Cruz is in trouble.

"We're not bluffing, this is real, and it is a serious threat," Cornyn said in a POLITICO interview. "If Ted does his job and we do ours, I think we'll be fine. But if we have donors sitting on the sidelines thinking that, 'Well, this isn't all that serious,' or 'I don't need to be concerned,' then that's a problem."

Even Ted Cruz has stopped ignoring Beto and started attacking him, even going as far as releasing a doctored video to bolster his weak attack line claiming Beto is 'too liberal for Texas'

Nope Ted.   We finally got someone better than you that we like and has a serious chance of making you a one term US senator.  

Dolt 45 is rumored to be traveling to Texas soon to hold a rally at Jerry World for our not so Texas tough senator from Alberta.

The worried Texas conservafool minions have started doing their grassroots level dirty trick of sign stealing.  This thug woman was busted in Houston's ritzy River Oaks neighborhood stealing this Beto sign.  Reports are coming from other Houston neighborhoods and across the state that the same thing is happening.

Houston and Harris County make up 25% of the statewide vote totals in an election, and Harris County went blue in the 2016 election cycle.

FYI to the conservaBecky that stole this sign.  This is what that house looks like now.  The more signs you steal, the more money that goes to the Beto campaign ($10 a sign) to replace them.

A reminder and a warning to you Texas conservafools tempted to steal or destroy Beto signs.  Under Texas law, stealing, willfully defacing, destroying or removing a political sign on private property is a misdemeanor crime punishable by a $2500 fine and up to a year in jail

The Lone Star conservafools in addition to the national GOP are running scared over the prospect of a Senator Beto O'Rourke.   Good. The Democrats, despite having to defend 26 senate seats in this cycle, only need to flip two Republican held seats out of the eight the Republicans are having defend this cycle to get control of the US Senate




Beto's senate campaign is also forcing the Republican Senate Campaign Committee (RSCC) to make some tough calls in addition to ramping up their rhetoric. 

They will have to decide soon if they wish to spend precious campaign funds in this expensive Texas media market trying to save Ted or commit that money to Republican senate candidates in more affordable markets elsewhere in the country
Meanwhile Lyin' Ted Cruz is in the fight of his political life in this US senate race.  It's past time we had a Democrat once again positively repping the senate seat once held by Ralph Yarborough and Lloyd Bentsen. 
. 

Vice on HBO Trans In Texas Show

I do television interviews from time to time, and sometimes they end up on the cutting room floor instead of the final broadcast show.

I'd done an interview during this year's BTAC conference, but once I took off the mic I forgot about it until my Facebook page started blowing up Friday night with people seeing the short segment that I'd taped.

The sixth season of Vice on HBO/recently broadcast an episode entitled Trans In Texas that features Kai and Kimberly Shappley, Dee Dee Watters, Dana Hinton and some GLAAD Media Award winning blogger y'all know 

It's only 17 minutes, and they barely scratched the surface on some of the issues we're dealing with in the Lone Star State

The video was finally released on their YouTube channel, so I got to see it.   Here's the video for you

Why I'm In Favor Of Houston Hosting The 2020 DNC Convention

There is some chatter occuring in sections of Houston LGBTQ World coming from predominately white peeps inexplicably opposing the city's bid to capture the hosting duties for the 2020 Democratic National Convention. 

Their rationale to buttress their flimsy opposition to the city's bid for the 2020 DNC is that since Houston doesn't have a non discrimination ordinance, it shouldn't be hosting the convention.

FYI for you peeps.  Guess y'all forgot we DID pass the Houston Equal Rights Ordinance on May 28, 2014.   We lost the repeal battle after HERO was forced on the ballot by the conservative leaning SCOTX and right wing fake faith based evilgelicals.

The Houston 2020 DNC convention bid also has bipartisan support from local Republican legislators and former president George HW Bush, who wrote a letter to Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner supporting the bid.

I support the city of Houston going after the 2020 Democratic National Convention.  As of this writing we are one of the three finalist cities for it in addition to Miami and Milwaukee. 

First, the bid.   Ours is based on using the George R Brown Convention Center and the next door Toyota Center for the convention    The Convention Center district has two 1000 room hotels (the Hilton Americas and the Marriott Marquis) connected to the GRB and several thousand more downtown within easy walking, free shuttle bus or a METRORail train ride to the GRB-Toyota Center complex 

These downtown hotels, should we land the bid, would be filled with people attending the convention.  Houston has also proven multiple times that we can easily handle large scale conventions and events.

The 2020 DNC convention would not only provide business to these downtown hotels during the convention business summer doldrums, it would provide work for all the people in our Houston service and hospitality industry during the four days in 2020 that Houston would be hosting the Democratic Party leadership, delegates from across the country, and media covering the event. 

Must point out that the people working in the Houston hospitality industry would definitely appreciate the opportunity of making some money during the summer convention doldrum period.

Many of those people working in the Houston hospitality industry are Black and Latinx Houstonians who would benefit personally by the DNC being here.

It has been 90 years since Houston last hosted the DNC in 1928, and 1992 since the city hosted the RNC at the Astrodome.

It's way past time for the city of Houston to host the Democrats in our hometown again.

Nineteen Black Women Running For Harris County Judicial Benches

One of the other interesting things I'll be watching on Election Night 2018 is the developing story of nineteen Black women who are running for various judicial benches in the most populous county in Texas, Harris County. 

This story has been building since the March Texas primary, when these women won their various judicial primary races.

One of the stories that was overshadowed in the 2016 election is the fact that Harris County, which had been trending purple over the last few cycles, went undeniably blue that year and is on track to do so again in less than 60 days.

Harris County provides 25% of all the votes cast in a Texas statewide election. The other reason why these 19 Black women running is important for our community is because in addition to providing judicial leadership that reflects our community, winners of judicial seats, since they are countywide races, are looked at as potential candidates by the parties for statewide and federal races.

These women are not only part of the historic wave of Black women running for office in this 2018 cycle, they are also sending the undeniable message that Black women are the base of the Democratic Party, they deserve to be listened to, and also hold public office.  .

For you people who claim that you #TrustBlackWomen, your best bet for proving that you do precisely that would be to commit yourself to the action starting during the early voting period on October 22 and closing on November 6 to electing all nineteen of these well qualified Black women candidates for the judicial benches they are running for 

Our Harris County courthouse judges need to reflect the diversity of the 5 million people who live in the most populous county in Texas and the third most populous county in the US. 

Electing these 19 women, Dedra Davis, Maria Jackson, Latosha Lewis Payne, Shannon Baldwin, Erica Hughes, Ronnisha Bowman, Tonya Jones, Cassandra Holleman, LaShawn Williams, Ramona Franklin, Lauren Reeder, Angela Graves-Harrington, Sandra Peake, Lori Chambers Grey, Linda M. Dunson, Germaine Tanner, and Michelle Moore would be a huge step toward making that diversity in the courthouse a reality

Trust Black women means electing Black women to public office.

Danielle Skidmore Gets Endorsed By Texas Equity PAC

Danielle Skidmore is one of the wave of trans candidates in this 2018 election cycle who are   #TransformingPolitics by running for various offices across the country and making history in some cases while doing so..

Skidmore is running for the District 9 seat on the Austin City Council, taking on incumbent Councilmember Kathie Tovo, who has been there since 2011.

Some good news in this ongoing Austin city council race for her. 

She has been endorsed by the Texas Equity PAC, the political action committee for Equality Texas.  The Texas Equity PAC seeks to elect pro-equality candidates like Danielle in local and state races.

Danielle was obviously thrilled to get the endorsement, and had this to say about it.

"I am honored to receive the endorsement of a group that has supported Mary González and so many others who inspire my fight for equality. We have a chance to make history here in Texas, but can't do it without the support of every day Texans contributing what they can to carry us to victory!" 

Danielle is not accepting PAC money for this council race, so if you wish to support her, you can send donations for her campaign via this link.

Here's hoping I hear some more good news from the ATX concerning her campaign on November 6.

Shady Behavior By Presley In HD 29?

One of the reprehensible tactics used by the Texas Republican Party as they clawed their way from somnambulant minority party status to a majority by 2002 was having people run in the Democratic Party primary. 

In the 70's and 80's, that basically meant you would win in the general election because of the Democratic dominance of the state at the time if you won your contested Democratic Party primary race.

That GOP ringer person would after capturing the nomination, either wait until after they had won the November general election, then switch parties and declare they were 'now a Republican' after using Democratic Party resources and funds to get the office, or after winning the Democratic nomination, wait until it was too late to take their name off the ballot or for the Texas  Democratic Party to replace them to cite some reason to withdraw from the race, allowing the Republican candidate in that race to basically run unopposed.

When I saw this FB message from James Patrick Presley announcing that he was ending his campaign for the Pearland area HD 29 seat south of Houston, it not only sent deja vu vibes of back in the day Republican meddling in our Democratic primaries, but pissed me off on multiple levels.

Patrick Presley

          23 hrs

Friends, Family, Voters, and fellow Candidates,
With my deepest apologies, I regret to inform you that I will no longer be pursuing the position of State Representative, HD 29, as it is no longer within my best interests. I have made this decision within the last two weeks. I am not being threatened or coerced to do this. I know this will come as a shock to many, and that many will be upset with this decision, but please allow me to explain: 

When I decided to run for this office, I had the complete belief and motivation that if I gained the full support of the Democratic Party in this area, I could win this office with moderate stances and a voice of reason/unity. Freshly coming from the Libertarian Party, and even after winning my primary, this is not what has happened. I have been talked about behind my back, lied about, misrepresented, misunderstood, and unsupported. I have tried to explain multiple times that my former beliefs from my time in the LP were no longer my beliefs, as they quickly changed the more I researched specific areas of psychology pertaining to political viewpoints. My current political standings label me as a centrist, moderate, independent, and left-of-center. None of this mattered in the mind of the Democratic Party. As a Republican friend of mine told me, “When you won your primary, we were worried. When we saw how the Democrats reacted, we were relieved.” 

I no longer feel the need to explain myself. I no longer feel the desire to talk about moderate viewpoints to a group who only wishes to hear progressive stances. I will no longer feel the stress of having to spend my own money against a $500,000 tank. I simply do not have the influence and support within my own party to win this race. I would rather spend my time, money, and resources on myself, my education, my friends, my family, and possibly some wonderful candidates we have within the Democratic Party. I am particularly excited about Beto, Mike Collier, Kim Olson, Sri Kulkarni, Eliz Markowitz, FJ Jones, and Robin Burgess. (This is not a complete list of who I will vote for, but Criminal Justice Reform (Judge Reform) and Education Reform are my top priorities). 

I would like to specifically apologize to Dylan Forbis for taking this opportunity away from you. You have been nothing but helpful and kind to me this entire time. I messaged Dylan one day with absolute excitement and motivation that I could raise $100,000. He told me I was being too ambitious. I didn't believe him, but he was correct. I still believe need YOUNG REPRESENTATION in our government. I hope the next candidate the Democratic Party chooses is young (Below 40), influential, and a community leader. Preferably a veteran and a business owner. 

From here I will continue to go to school on my GI Bill. I hope to go to Physical Therapy school in the next couple years. I need a high GPA, and I may be required to move to find a school that is right for me. This is another reason it is not best for me to pursue this office. I will continue to preach Criminal Justice Reform and Education reform. 

However, I will not be pursing any type of office in the near future. I do hope to sit down with Ed Thompson to discuss my concerns within the state of Texas. Hopefully we can come to agreements. He has been very kind to me and already told me he would vote to repeal section 22.06 of the penal code (Deemed unconstitutional: Outlawing Homosexuality). This would be progress, but understand that this is not a reason I am not pursuing this position. We need Criminal Justice Reform, Education Reform, Father's Rights, and Healthcare Reform. 

I wish to not be harassed. If you feel a certain way about this decision, you are free to discuss it. Do not tag me, do not message me, and if you so choose, delete me from social media. However, I hope that we can understand and remain friends/acquaintances.

Yeah Patrick.  I do wish to discuss it. 

Presley beat Dylan Forbis back in March to get the nomination, and this situation has the unpleasant stench of Presley being a ringer for several reasons. 

Presley was a Libertarian, I'm  highly skeptical until they have spent at least five years in the Democratic Party that your change of party affiliation is genuine. 

Because we have been burned by GOP fake Dem ringers in the past. I and other Texas Democrats are justifiably skeptical of people from the right who join the party until we feel comfortable that your claim of seeing the political light is genuine and you have paid your dues in this party.

Just donating money to the Kentucky Republican Party combined with his conservative stances was enough to sink Andrew White's bid to get the Democratic nomination for Texas governor 

If  Presley wasn't sure he was committed to campaigning all the way until November, he should have never jumped into the race in the first place.

Another thing that is pissing me off about this late drop out and fueling my suspicion that he was a ringer is that under the Texas Election code, a political party may replace its candidate after a withdrawal if that candidate:

*Falls “critically ill” and would not be able to execute his or her duties if elected
*If no other party has a nominee for the position that is being contested,
*If the candidate withdraws because he or she was elected or appointed to another office. 

Since Presley's withdrawal from the HD 29 race doesn't fall under any of those parameters, it looks like for the second time since 2014, unless Democratic Party attorneys find a way out of this mess, Ed Thompson is going to go unopposed in a general election for his HD 29 seat.

That's disappointing and disrespectful to the 4056 Democratic residents of the district who voted for you over Dylan Forbis to be the Democratic nominee to take on Thompson.  

As you acknowledged in your comment, you not only took away an opportunity for Dylan to possibly serve HD 29 as its elected state rep, more importantly, you took away a historic opportunity for the Texas trans community, a community demonized in the last session by Potty Dan Patrick and Locker Room Lois Kolkhorst, to possibly place for the first time ever a trans representative in the Texas Lege. 

So yeah, that reason more than anything else besides wanting to see more Democrats in the Texas legislature in the 2019 session is why I'm definitely pissed about what you have done.

Another Frustrating Day With The Texas DPS

One of the things I have not been happy about since I came back home is the Texas Department of Public Safety (our Texas state troopers) consolidating offices into this mega center concept and putting them far off the beaten METRO path in the 'burbs or a long bus ride from the hood and barrio.

Had another negative experience with the DPS yesterday.

Since I've recently moved, I now have 30 days to update my Texas ID to the new Westchase area address.  I set yesterday aside to accomplish that task.   The nearest DPS Mega Center to me is six miles away from my new digs on S. Gessner, about 15 minutes by car but an hour by METRO bus. 

Interestingly enough, that Mega Center, which has lots of nonwhite folks using it because of the composition of the nearby surrounding neighborhoods, is closed for a renovation that started May 24 and is scheduled for completion November 30. 

The S Gessner location is also considered one of the busiest in the state of Texas. The other Mega Center is even farther north (12.9 miles) on Veterans Memorial, and two I won't be able to access near The Woodlands, and in Rosenberg in Fort Bend County. 

That leaves on the METRO bus accessible list the DPS Dacoma office in NW Houston near Northwest Mall and one that just opened off Old Galveston Rd 22 miles on the far southeast side of town from moi.   I'm having to go in person to do the address change because I don't have a printer right now in order to do so online. 

So after getting up early Monday morning in order to catch three buses to get to the Dacoma location, I get off  at the stop for the DPS office to see a line wrapped three quarters of the way around the building just to enter it.   Needless to say the heat index for Houston that say was predicted to reach triple digits and it was close to noon when I got there.

So after resigning myself to a long wait, I got in line.   I was there about ten minutes when three DPS employees came out to ask if anyone was in line for renewals or to get a new license.

I told the employees I was there for a change of address, to which she responded "We don't do those at this location, you have to go to a MegaCenter." 

I responded, "That would have been nice to know before I took three buses to get to this location."

She then handed me a flyer with the addresses of the two Mega Centers that that I already knew were light years in bus travel time from my current location in NW Houston, so since I had other things to try to accomplish I headed in the direction of my bank branch in the Galleria area cursing my buzzard's luck and once again dealing with the impact of the voter suppression apparatus that DPS Mega Centers are part of. 

Past time the DPS puts one of those Drivers License Mega Centers closer to downtown well inside the city limits of our major cities instead of near the freaking 'burbs.  But then again it would defeat the Texas GOP  purpose of putting a roadblock in being able to use the Motor Voter Law to be able to register to vote.

Trust I will get it done.  But right now I'm pissed that i couldn't get it done yesterday when I had set time aside to accomplish that task.   

Houston Puts In Bid For 2020 DNC Convention

Houston City Council voted 15-1 to formally put in a bid to land the 2020 Democratic National Convention after being asked to do so by the Democratic Party.

The last time we hosted a DNC was 1928.  That led to the construction of the Sam Houston Coliseum, which was eventually demolished to make room for the Hobby Center.

Houston was also host city for the 1992 Republican Convention at the Astrodome in which Pat Buchanan made his infamous 'culture war' speech.

Houston joins seven other cities, Atlanta, Birmingham, Denver, Miami Beach, Milwaukee, New York and San Francisco in competing for the coveted convention.

The DNC had previously sent out letters to a longer list of cities to gauge their interest in hosting the event.  Birmingham and New York were considered as host cities in 2016, but were passed over for the eventual winner Charlotte.

The winning city will be announced in January 2019

Allen ISD Refuses To Respect A Trans Teen's Identity At Graduation

I'm not surprised given that after the Dodie's Place restaurant in that town gleefully engaged in transphobia to mark its restrooms, that I would hear about more transphobia rearing its ugly head in Allen, TX.

 Jay Alfie began his transition during his freshman year at Allen High School.  A few months ago he checked with school administrators and made the simple request that his chosen name be used at the graduation ceremony.

They told him that it wouldn't be possible because in their words, it had to be legally changed.

Alfie's name change is pending, so his family is wondering why the Allen HS administrators are being so unreasonable about it

“It makes me feel sad that they’re not going to allow him to enjoy that last moment,” said Jorge Alfie. “What are we talking about here, 10 seconds? But it’s probably one of the 10 most important seconds of his life.”

Every young person’s identity as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, or queer should be honored, celebrated and supported. Allen High School should respect Jay Alfie’s identity and recognize him by his chosen name. To ’deadname’ a student as they cross the stage for graduation in front of their peers, friends, and family constitutes an act of abhorrent bullying and harassment,” Chuck Smith, CEO of Equality Texas, told NewNowNext.

“Alfie's sister has created a MoveOn petition that has nearly 5000 signatures that is simply asking for the Allen ISD to just announce Jay by his chosen name and not his dead name at his graduation..

We'll see this Friday if they do so, or just want to be transphobic bigots about it.

Moni's On KNON-FM's Lambda Weekly Tomorrow!

Been a while since I was on Lambda Weekly, the radio show hosted by David Tafet, lerone Landis and the late Pati Fink on KNON-FM 89.3 in Dallas.

I get to do the show again at 1 PM CDT tomorrow.

For those of you who don't live in the Dallas-Fort Worth area or the broadcast range of KNON-FM, you can hear the show by going to the website and listening to the livestream of it  or downloading the phone app and listening to it that way.

No matter what way you do so, hope you tune in for it .

Fran Watson Runoff Election TX State Senate Bid Falls Short

One of the bummer results from last night's Texas party primary runoff election races is that Fran Watson's historic bid to become only the third African American woman to be elected a Texas state senator ended last night.

Had Watson won, she would have not only stayed on course to become the third African American woman state senator, she would have possibly become the first ever openly LGBT one in Texas history.

Texas State Senate District 17 is split across three counties, Harris, Fort Bend and Brazoria.   Despite Watson taking an early lead by winning the Brazoria County portion of the district, the same didn't happen in Harris and Fort Bend counties. 

Rita Lucido will get the Democratic nomination for Senate District 17 and will get a rematch with the incumbent senator Joan Huffman (R).  Best of luck to her this fall.

But I do wish to take a moment to congratulate Fran Watson for a job well done in her first campaign for public office.  She forced a runoff with the favored Lucido.  7,659 Texans voted for you across three counties in this runoff election  and 12,621 did so on March 6. 

Countless other #TeamFran people supported you in your historic bid to become a Texas senator along with several organizations .

Fran. you didn't lose.   We Texans lost by not having a quality person like you repping Senate District 17 when the next Texas legislative session starts in January   We need more progressive leaning people and politicians who will put the people first.  We need your thoughtful, eloquent voice resonating in Texas senate hearings and the Texas senate chamber during floor debates.

I have no doubts that it will happen for you.   Unfortunately it wasn't last night.

Fran, just a note from our history for you and everyone else to peruse.  Barbara Jordan (who you were frequently compared to) lost her first two bids for the Texas House in 1962 and 1964.   She eventually won that historic 1966 state Senate race and every campaign after that until she retired from Congress in 1978. 

Something great is in store for you.   It's going to be interesting to see exactly what that is.